Another bumper entry list for Round 3 of Al Ain Raceway’s 2011/12 AARKC Rotax MAX Challenge season. A total 67 drivers raced across 6 classes to continue their championship campaigns.
In Junior MAX 125, reigning Champion Abdullah Al Rawahi dominated the days proceedings and scored his second final win in a row to put him firmly in control of the championship standings. The battle for second place between Cyrus Engineer and Ameer Hassan was decided at the start of the last lap when Hassan found a way by and held on to score second place on the podium ahead of Engineer in third.
Senior MAX 125 was conquered once more by Sanad Al Rawahi who led from start to finish without hindrance. He has now won three races in a row and sit atop the points standings by a comfortable margin. Patrick Jarjour was his closest competition with another podium finish in second place, narrowly beating Nikita Miliakov who came home third.
The MAX Masters was once again well attended and it was Andrew Fuller who recorded yet another impressive victory. Leading the class all day long he was un-phased when under pressure and continues to sit strongly at the top of the points table. Second place was won by Luc Bauwmans, who after a shaky opening round in September bounced back into contention. Walid Al Qassemi made full use of his brand new kart to finish in third place.
DD2 125 (gearbox class) saw its highest grid numbers to date. Some strong competitors made for what was undoubtedly the best race of the day. Mohammed Al Dhaheri – the reigning UAE Champion – held off a hard charging field to claim a well deserved victory. Georg Vann – racing at Al Ain Raceway for the first time – finished in second place after fighting for the win race long. Hasher Al Maktoum completed the podium line up with a hard fought drive to third.
In the Cadet class, Taymour Kermanshahchi continued his dominance with another lights-to-flag victory. He was followed home by Alain Bauwmans and Tehmur Chohan came home third – his first ever appearance on the podium.
The Honda Challenge was once again well attended with a total of 20 drivers lining up on the grid. The race was won by Piers Pakenham-Walsh after starting from Pole Position and battling heard with his competitors. It was an incredible race that saw Piers eventually break free of the pack with 4 laps to go. Hussein Umid Ali Al Baloushi came out on top of the train of karts to finish second ahead of Nathan Stevens who was officially recorded as third place.
