Hassan sets new record as Drag Racing season ends
Ali, Faisal emerge 2nd & 3rd
BIC, Sakhir, May 11: Adel Hassan had twice the reason to celebrate during the fifth and final round of the 2013/2014 Bahrain National Drag Racing Championship.
The veteran Bahraini talent set a new World Record en route to claiming a fine victory in the Street 4 and 6 category.
Hassan’s winning time of 9.551 seconds at a speed of 225.69kph in his final run was a new World Record for naturally aspirated front-wheel four-cylinder cars.
His fine performance headlined a series of spectacular runs at an exciting season-finale hosted over the weekend by Bahrain International Circuit (BIC) in Sakhir.
More than 100 drivers in the various cars and motorbikes classes from across the Gulf and beyond took to BIC’s quarter-mile drag strip one last time to battle it out for supremacy and championship points.
The meeting was organised by BIC in cooperation with the Bahrain Drag Racing Club (BDRC), Bahrain Motorcycle Club (BMC), Bahrain Motor Federation (BMF) and Motorsport Marshals Club (MMC).
Hassan had defeated Mohammed Ali in the final of the Street 4 and 6 category. Ali had a run of 10.338s at 206.36kph in the final. Abdulaziz Faisal finished in third place.
Also coming away with an impressive victory was Ali Haji in the Competition 4.5 class.
Registering an elapsed time of 4.558s and a reaction time of 0.091s, Haji defeated Tareq Hadi in their final round battle, while Salim Al Tamimi had to set- tle for third place.
“Tonight’s final round was very good, except for the weather, which did not help us,” Haji said after claiming his first victory of the season.
“The Competition 4.5 class is arguably the most difficult category in the championship,” added Haji. “It is very difficult to win here, especially again tonight.”
Several other drivers had impressive runs to cap another highly competitive year in the championship.
Yousif Alali won the Pro Mod class by a mere two-hundredths of a second against Turki Alhumadi. Alali had a winning mark of 3.890s in his eighth-mile run with a speed of 304.28kph. Khalil Ibrahim finished third.
Abdulla Al Shati followed suit with a stunning victory in the hotly contested Super Street V8 class.
Racing against favourite Khaled Mohammed of E Kanoo Racing Team, Al Shati stormed to first place with a winning time of 4.503s in the final at a speed of 282.89kph. Mohammed was twotenths of a second slower as the runner-up while Talal Othman completed the podi- um placers.
Mohammed’s E Kanoo Racing teammate Gary White managed to claim a victory in the Outlaw 6-Cylinder class. The American won the final race comfortably against Mohammed Haji, who had a stage foul. Mohammed Shakib was classified third overall.
Claiming a fine win in the Super Street 6-Cylinder division was Yousif Abdulla, who clocked an 8.401s winner against Nawaf Ahmed. White was also competing in this class and he came up third to take the last podium step.