This weekend’s third round of the Radical Cup series at Yas Marina Circuit sees new cars and drivers entering the fray.Both Hassan M Dargani and Perry Johansson debut their brand new Radical SR 3’s hoping to get the better of class leader Sheik AbdulRahman Al Thani from Qatar. Also competing for the race wins will be second placed Tony Wells and James Littlejohn from the UK. Dutch driver Henry Van Den Hueval returns to the Series in his SR3 hoping to also make an impression on the class leaders. Also joining the Series for the first time is Indian driver Zaamin Jaffer who will team up with regular driver Klaus Kresnik. Zaamin has had plenty experience of single seater racing in the UK and is keen to make an impression on the Radical field.
In the SR8 class, local drivers Bassam Kronfli and Raed Hassan are hoping to take their newly upgraded SR8 to the top of the podium by beating Jordan Grogor the series leader who this weekend is joined by UAE national driver Humaid Al Masaood who is fresh back from his highly successful campaign in the American Le Mans Series with his Oryx racing team. A newcomer to the series Omar Alghanim from Kuwait is expected to be racing in his SR8 alongside the high;ly experienced Tarek Al Gammel with both drivers expecting to do well.
UAE National drivers Juma Al Dhaheri and Mohammed Al Hammadi join up to add to the SR3 field despite a continuing lack of sponsorship from local organisations. This may prove to be their last race together in the series despite their huge efforts to attract funding.
Carl Rolaston, series promoter and Team Principal of AUH Motorsports commented, “whilst it is good to see the Radical grid expanding with both new drivers and new cars joining the Series, it is somewhat disappointing that that the increase has not been as great as had been expected for this event. A number of drivers were forced to pull out at the last minute and the expected show of drivers from Saudi did not materialise due to a clash of race dates with the Saudi Radical Championship which could not be moved.
A lack of sponsorship and support for Local UAE drivers was also hampering the growth of the Radical Series and the wider National race series. Given the brand exposure opportunities that the Radical Series and National racing provides for their partners and not to mention the promotion of National driving talent, it would be nice to see local companies and organisations putting something back into the UAE’s National youth by providing some financial support towards the efforts of UAE National drivers.
Fortunately, there are some enlightened organisations out there that do recognise the benefits of associating themselves with Radicals and National racing and the contributions made by Centro Hotels, Topmost Freight, NGK, Cytech,Total , Sport360 and others is greatly appreciated”.
