UAE RMC 2013-14 – YAS MARINA

As the sound of 76 roaring Rotax engines ecohoed around the Yas Marina buildings during yesterday evenings test session, all competors were even more excited for the offical race meeting the next day.
The UAE Rotax MAX Challange are the only Rotax series ever in the world to be able to use part of a Formula 1 track during one of the offical rounds, so as you can imagine, all of the Organisers, Drivers, Mechanics and Spectators went out of their way to make sure that this race meeting was going to be one to remember! 

In the Micro MAX Category, the most consistant driver of the day was Sem Knopjes who managed a fantastic time of 41.986s which was also the fastest lap of the day. Sems consistancy paid off as he walked away with 1st place. 
Just behind him in the final was Jamie Day who improved all throughout the day, and battling for 3rd place was Theo Kekati and Thomas Voss who were constantly changing possitions right up until the last lap, where Thomas managed to get infront of Theo and sustain 3rd place.
Hamish Foster and Oscar Mcelroy did not manage to start due to having an almightly off in Heat 3. Both drivers were absoulte troopers but unfortunately had to sit out of the final after bending their karts.

Usually for the Mini MAX class, we always have a large amount of faulse starts, but these drivers took to the circuit like ducks to water and did an amazing job!
Fastest lap of the day went to driver number 99 Tehmur Chohan who also won the race meeting. With only 0.003 seconds away from him as the chequard flag came out was driver number 52, Yahya Houston who drove his socks off all day and really pushed himself to the MAX.
Daniel Booth who had some bad luck in heat 3 with his chain coming off  put on a fornominal performance  and finished 3rd.
Shihab Al Habsi who used to be in the Micro MAX class moved up to Mini this meeting, and manged to start in 4th place for the final which is a great accoplishment when competing now with some drivers who are alot older than him.

The Junior MAX class is going from strenth-to-strenth with grids which used to cosist of only 6 drivers has now progressed to an amazing 13 compeitiors.

With less than a second between driver number 100 Pasuqal Pook and 111 Taymour Kemanshahchi, you can only imagine how intense things got in the final! With Pasqual always coming out on top throughout the day, he faught to the bitter end with Taymour during the last laps on the final. Taymour in the last lap managed to sneakily make a move on Pasqual and also achieved the best laptime of the day which was 36.356 seconds.
3rd place finisher was Khalid Al Wahaibi who came all the way from Oman to compete here at YAS Marina and defiantly gave our top runners a run for their money with being, extreemly competitve throughout the day. 
Amna Al Quabaisi who was the only girl in the whole race meeting did a great job and managed to keep mid-field during all 3 heats and and Final. 

The lagest class of the day were the 125 ROTAX MAX catagory with a total of 20 drivers who all took the World Renowned Yas Marina Circuit. 
Abdulla Al Rawahi did not have the best of luck during the rcae meeting, however in the final he managed to pull-up his racing gloves and go onto winning the race.

Beind him was driver number 247 Alessandro Stura who is another International driver to compete in the UAE RMC series. Alssandro and his Farther Marco live in Italy and make the very long flight each meeting, so that Alessando can compete which makes his Podiums even more meaningful. 
3rd place was Tom Bale who again, is another expericanced driver who not only competes here in the UAE, but also travels alot overseas to race in other circuits around the world.