RSPC – ROUND 4 – RESULTS & REPORT
Another Ramadan Super Prix Challenge is over and the concluding round saw a traditionally tight contest for the silverware. We have enjoyed a fantastic turn-out for the four round series and offer our sincere thanks to the 37 championship competitors for their unwavering support over the last month.
Round 4 was held on the popular Grand Finals Circuit – a flowing, high-speed layout with two 180m+ straights, making defending much more difficult and overtaking easier with the enhanced effect of sliptream.
An attendance of 25 was excellent for the last round with 6 new faces joining the regular protagonists.
QUALIFYING
All drivers would take to the track for Qualifying and the times at the front were fascinatingly close at the chequered flag. Patrick Hannah was the name up in lights with the best overall lap time of 76.85s while Championship contender Carlos Do Vale pushed him very close with a lap of 76.94s. Raffaele De Lorenzi was 3rd with 77.09s while Ahmed Al Shamsi gave his Championship chances inspiration with a lap of 77.10s for 4th spot. The series top 3 could not do better than 5th (Piers Pakenham-Walsh), 9th (Dan Price) and 11th (Hussain Umid Ali).
HEAT 1
Patrick lined up alongside Carlos at the front of Heat 1 with Ahmed and Piers on row 2. Carlos was looking to take advantage of his impressive qualifying pace and revive his Title charge but disaster struck on the opening laps as he experienced a mechanical failure and had to return to the Pit Lane to change his kart. This would leave Patrick to hold off Ahmed with some impeccable defence until the chequered flag while Saeed Al Mehairi and Hussain did well to edge away from their contemporaries in the closing stages to seal 3rd and 4th respectively. Just fractions of a second would separate 5th placed Paul Morris from Piers, Ivan Kalinin and Khaled Al Saadi.
HEAT 2
Patrick was joined by Raffaele on the front row for Heat 2 while Ahmed lined up alongside Omran Al Owais on row 2 with Ivan and Dan on row 3. Raffaele would exchange positions with Patrick at the head of the field as the race neared its end while 5 karts battled fiercely for 3rd. On the last lap Raffaele surprised Patrick with a move in a more unorthodox place to take the lead but just 2 corners further on Raffaele put 2 wheels on the dirt and lost ground as Patrick sailed past to claim his 2nd victory. However, the positions were reversed by the Race Direction after a post-race investigation revealed that Raffaele’s excursion was the result of contact. A fascinating 5-way contest behind ended with Ivan sealing 3rd from Dan, Saeed, Omran and Paul. Just 1 second separated them.
HEAT 3
Carlos would have a chance to avenge his calamitous Heat 1 by starting on Pole Position for Heat 3 from Raffaele, Piers, Omran and co. Again we were treated to some dramatic racing as 3 drivers edged away at the front while 5 others fought hard for 4th place. After an amazing start Hussain had picked his way to the front with Carlos and Piers challenging hard. They crossed the line together with Hussain narrowly edging out Carlos by 0.1s and Piers 0.3s back. Omran completed an impressive drive to 4th ahead of Dan while Juma Al Falasi managed to fend off Raffaele and Khaled for 6th place.
FINAL
So to the last race of the RSPC series and there was still much riding on the results. The top driver after the Heats was Patrick who had Hussain for company on the front row. Raffaele and Saeed occupied row 2 with Piers and Dan (2nd and 3rd in the Championship) on row 3. The 20 minute race would see 16 laps of frantic action which equated to 22km!
After just a couple of laps the main race contenders emerged from the ether with Saeed squeezing past Hussain and Patrick to take an early lead. This would be a lead that he would never relinquish despite intense pressure from all angles. Hussain had one eye on Saeed but another on Patrick behind him as he tried to defend his 2nd place, knowing that he held valuable track position over his closest Championship rivals – Piers and Dan. Piers was well in the mix, himself in the knowledge that overhauling Hussain’s points advantage was quite possible if he could sneak past and rely on another couple of drivers getting in between them. It was an incredible tactical battle with Saeed having to defend all over the track as Patrick, with nothing to lose in the Championship, was looking for any opportunity to gain a place while Hussain and Piers had much more at stake if they got tangled up in an incident.
Dan had another strategy in mind. With the gap to 2nd in the Championship an unrealistic target, his main objective was to finish ahead of Ahmed who was only 2 points adrift going into the final round. Ahmed had started down in 13th after a troubled Heat 2 and Dan was content to let the leaders battle away and drive his own race to hopefully secure 3rd place in the series. Ahmed had other ideas, however, and was flying. After a lap of the Final Dan looked safe but within moments he was living to regret those tactics as Ahmed scythed through the field and successfully challenged him for 6th place. Dan gave chase but it was an uphill battle from there as Khaled was homing in strongly and Carlos was also in contention.
As the race neared its end, Saeed continued to defend against the onslaught of Hussain, Patrick and Piers while Ahmed used this to his advantage as he gradually reeled them in. With all 5 drivers swapping position and so much at stake something had to give and we had to wait until the final corner of the final lap for the defining moment of the race to unfold. Onto the long top straight and Saeed again opted to go defensive on the inside line while Patrick got ‘into his tow’ and moved to the outside to challenge into the penultimate corner. Hussain meanwhile moved to the inside behind Saeed while 
Piers and Ahmed were tussling with each other. Saeed kept the place but Patrick got a tremendous run out of the left hander before the final tight right-hander, and moved alongside. Saeed was now on the inside and was not about to give up his place but Patrick was slighty in front and tried to make it stick around the outside. The 2 leaders rubbed sidepods which unsettled Patrick’s kart and simultaneous contact from Hussain was enough to send Patrick into a spin and off the track. He would rejoin to finish in 9th place.
Saeed held on to take the victory after an imperious drive with Hussain in 2nd, Ahmed 3rd and Piers 4th while Dan held off Khaled for 5th just 1 second behind the leaders. After investigation Patrick’s spin was deemed to have been a racing incident with no one specifically to blame.
Well done to the RSPC Round 4 podium finishers:
| 1st Place | Saeed Al Mehairi |
| 2nd Place | Hussain Umid Ali |
| 3rd Place | Ahmed Al Shamsi |
Hearty congratulations go to our Series winners who received an array of valuable prizes at the Award Presentation:
| 1st Place | Hussain Umid Ali |
| 2nd Place | Piers Pakenham-Walsh |
| 3rd Place | Ahmed Al Shamsi |
And to top off a thoroughly entertaining championship, the lucky winner of the brand new CRG race kart was Mr. Piers Pakenham Walsh!!!
We look forward to seeing you all next year!
| R | 1 | R | 2 | R | 3 | R | 4 | TOTAL | ||
| 1 | Hussain Umid Ali | 23 | 75 | 22 | 75 | 25 | 57 | 24 | 65 | 366 |
| 2 | Piers Pakenham Walsh | 19 | 57 | 24 | 57 | 19 | 75 | 21 | 50 | 322 |
| 3 | Ahmed Al Shamsi | 17 | 21 | 18 | 50 | 24 | 65 | 13 | 57 | 265 |
| 4 | Dan Price | 21 | 39 | 25 | 39 | 23 | 50 | 20 | 44 | 261 |
| 5 = | Carlos Do Vale | 24 | 50 | 23 | 27 | 15 | 32 | 12 | 35 | 218 |
| 5 = | Khaled Al Saadi | 22 | 30 | 21 | 44 | 17 | 30 | 15 | 39 | 218 |
| 7 | Juma Al Falasi | 20 | 44 | 15 | 29 | 21 | 18 | 16 | 24 | 187 |
| 8 | Omran Al Owais | 15 | 23 | 14 | 32 | 16 | 35 | 19 | 32 | 186 |
| 9 | Ivan Kalinin | 18 | 32 | 13 | 26 | 14 | 29 | 18 | 29 | 179 |
| 10 | Raffaele De Lorenzi | 0 | 0 | 17 | 35 | 20 | 39 | 23 | 25 | 159 |
| 11 | Salem Al Ameri | – | – | 20 | 65 | 22 | 44 | – | – | 151 |
| 12 | Shah Omar Rashid | 11 | 25 | 9 | 23 | 12 | 24 | 14 | 26 | 144 |
| 13 | Ali Allanjawi | 25 | 65 | 19 | 25 | – | – | – | – | 134 |
| 14 | Ray Walsh | 12 | 28 | 8 | 20 | 10 | 23 | 8 | 22 | 131 |
| 15 | Paul Morris | 0 | 0 | 12 | 28 | 13 | 27 | 17 | 27 | 124 |
| 16 | Prateek Saxena | 9 | 27 | 11 | 24 | 0 | 0 | 11 | 28 | 110 |
| 17 | Sanoop Syamalan | 5 | 22 | 4 | 13 | 3 | 21 | 10 | 23 | 101 |
| 18= | Bashir Al Baba | 4 | 24 | 1 | 14 | 7 | 20 | 7 | 20 | 97 |
| 18= | Andreas Flamino | 13 | 26 | 6 | 19 | 11 | 22 | 0 | 0 | 97 |
| 18= | Saeed Al Mehairi | – | – | – | – | – | – | 22 | 75 | 97 |
| 21 | Moayad Ibrahim Khrais | 8 | 19 | 2 | 18 | 4 | 16 | 5 | 18 | 90 |
| 22 | Mohammed Ismail | 6 | 17 | 3 | 15 | 9 | 17 | 4 | 15 | 86 |
| 23= | Yousef Al Shamsi | 7 | 20 | 1 | 17 | – | – | 9 | 21 | 75 |
| 23= | Ghanem Musallam | – | – | 10 | 22 | 18 | 25 | – | – | 75 |
| 25 | Patrich Hannah | – | – | – | – | – | – | 25 | 30 | 55 |
| 26 | Jeremy Castelli | 16 | 35 | – | – | – | – | – | – | 51 |
| 27 | Haroun Al Qubaisi | – | – | 5 | 12 | 5 | 26 | – | – | 48 |
| 28 | Yann Le Montreer | 0 | 0 | 16 | 30 | 0 | 0 | – | – | 46 |
| 29 | Phillipe Salanova | 14 | 29 | – | – | – | – | – | – | 43 |
| 30 | Valery Bartashevich | – | – | 1 | 16 | 6 | 19 | – | – | 42 |
| 31 | Saif Al Mutawaa | – | – | – | – | 8 | 28 | – | – | 36 |
| 32= | Hamad Allanjawi | – | – | 7 | 21 | – | – | – | – | 28 |
| 32= | Paul Godfrey | 10 | 18 | – | – | – | – | – | – | 28 |
| 34 | Rashed Al Shamisi | – | – | – | – | – | – | 6 | 19 | 25 |
| 35 | Faisal Al Shamisi | – | – | – | – | – | – | 3 | 17 | 20 |
| 36 | Sultan Al Shamisi | – | – | – | – | – | – | 2 | 16 | 18 |
| 37 | Abdullah Al Shamisi | – | – | – | – | – | – | 1 | 14 | 15 |
NOTE:
Drivers in yellow are automatically entered into the prize draw to win the CRG GLOBAL KART, COMPLETE WITH SEALED ROTAX 125 MAX ENGINE & 6 MONTHS FREE STORAGE. The draw will take place during the award ceremony on the final round of the Ramadan Super Prix Challenge 2012 on 16 August.
