UAE Rotax MAX Challenge round 7 missive
It would seem that the weather is a constant enemy. So far this season it’s always been too hot, too cold, too wet, and in yesterday’s case, too windy. The wind is a spiteful mistress that makes it impossible to manhandle a clipboard full of paper, makes radio communications totally inaudible and causes kart-racers to deal with turbulence of such extremes that even an Airbus A380 would struggle. Of course, the wind wasn’t the only concern on Friday.
Karting, it would seem, is an often underestimated sport on many levels. It is not just people driving around in circles and waving their arms. There are some that do not appreciate its importance at the foot of the motor-racing ladder, and that it gives people as young as five years old a privileged opportunity to learn vehicle control. Then there are others who think that karting is just a bit of weekend fun and that the PDF document entitled “Sporting and Technical Regulations†is as meaningless to them as a wall full of ancient hieroglyphs. How some people can turn up to a kart meeting and not know the basic rules is nothing short of mind-boggling. They will likely underestimate the dangers, too, and purely think that karting is as risk-free as playing Domino’s with their grandmother.
We live in an age where the world has never been safer and perhaps that gives people a false sense of immortality. We are forever being wrapped up in cotton wool and being told by the big industries that our safety is paramount. From cars to cutlery, things are designed to be safe, warm and fuzzy. Karting, however, still poses a risk, like any other form of motorsport. All it takes is for one driver to ignore one simple rule – or switch off their brain for just a second – and the result can be catastrophic. If you have been accused of not knowing basic safety rules then, please, for everyone’s sake, open the rule book now and don’t come back until you know it backwards.
On a more positive note, and turning our attention to the matter at hand, Tehmur Chohan continued his journey towards a second consecutive Mini MAX title with another win. By usual Mini MAX standards it could be argued that the race was fairly processional. The spectators love nothing more than a good bit of wheel-to-wheel, pod-to-pod racing, but from a driver’s point of view being left alone to win is far more enjoyable. The reigning Champion did not put a wheel wrong all race and crossed the line five seconds clear. There was, however, a nail-biting race for second place between Alain Bauwmans and Yahya Houston. There they were, from start to finish, running nose to tail. It was a fair fight with Alain just coming off better by a hairs breadth ahead of – well, alongside – Yahya. Tara Eichenberger enjoyed a good run after being promoted to fourth place after Ivan Berets was handed a 10-second penalty for leaving the tramlines too early at the start. His penalty demoted him to fifth, which wasn’t a disaster. There were also spirited performances from Sachio Kekati and Alyzee Pelegry who crossed the line sixth and seventh respectively.
Then we had the Micro MAX category, never to be forgotten. Because the Micro MAX class is still new for this season, the group is still taking shape. The arrival of four new drivers over the last few races has been warmly received. Sem Knopjes has been dominating the class thus far with each win followed by a cheeky grin. However, his dominance was called into question this weekend when new-boy Ziggy Kermanshahchi took the fight to him. The race started off with both Sem and Ziggy vying for the lead but by three quarters distance had began to space out. Sem just edged out a few seconds advantage to take the spoils once more, with Ziggy about four seconds back down the road. Title hopeful Yusuf Moola hasn’t gone anywhere and he too drove a good race to complete the podium line up. Of course in anyone’s first season in competitive karting, finishing the race is more important than the result and there were once again spirited drives from Theo Kekati (fourth), Ziyad Houston (fifth) and Amir Dargahi (six). With parental encouragement not in short supply, there will be trophies for these guys in good time.
The inadvertent pattern that I usually follow dictates that now we must discuss the Junior 125 MAX class, and what a race it was. Taymour Kermanshahchi was the early leader but it was Pasqual Pook who was causing the stir. After a problem in the pre-final, it was something technical; ask Keiran, Pasqual had to start from the back. He wasted no time at all in dispensing with the other drivers and soon engaged in a duel with Taymour. It was a thrilling scrap that saw Pasqual seal the win by a slender 1.115 seconds. Guilio Peroni, who went on to finish third, earned his stripes by coming out better in a three-kart fight for the final podium place. It was all jolly exciting as Stephanie Le Vesconte put Guilio under intense pressure, but despite a few kerb-related wobbles, he didn’t crack. But who else was involved in this podium shoot-out? Why, Sebastian Seeling of course. It has been noted by the karting elders that Sebastian has made real progress this year and the proof was in the pudding yesterday. By far his best performance to date, he didn’t just hold on to Stephanie’s rear bumper but showed flashes of attacking prowess, too. Good on him. Antoine Pelgry came home in sixth place.
Oh good, now we come to the 125 MAX class. The race where I can never remember what happens. First of all, I think it is only fair that I apologise for my irate demeanour on the start line in the pre-final. That whole timing system failure was a nightmare that, coupled with the ensuing chaos and the fact that the wind had messed up my hair, frankly, got on my nerves. But things were better in the final, I think, I don’t remember. Aha, there’s one thing I do remember; the start. The start of the MAX final was the eventual final straw that caused me to open this missive in the way that I did. The four kart pile up was caused by one driver who clearly underestimated how dangerous this sport can be at times. It was a sorry way for a race to start and thankfully no one was hurt. Needless to say the event will not be swept under the carpet.
But to the racing. The big talking point was that championship leader, Alexandre Silanine, suffered a kart problem that relegated him to a lowly 13th place. According to my sources on Facebook it was a slow puncture. These reports are unconfirmed. At the front however, it was the shaven headed Ameer Hassan leading the way the from Oman Karting Teams’ Abdullah Al Rawahi. Abdullah shadowed Ameer to the end but just couldn’t get quite close enough and resultantly came home behind a triumphant Ameer. There was also an entertaining battle for third place between Mohammed Al Mutawa and Philipp Valenza. Philippe had come up from somewhere near the back and was likely revelling in his own brilliance at such a drive. He couldn’t get by the wily Mohammed and ended up settling for fourth place. The championship table certainly makes for interesting reading. Well, it will do once it has been done. I could guess but I am as reliable with maths as that guy who promised to fix your washing machine is with punctuality.
Fifth place was won by Tom Walker, a man who probably worked harder for his position than anyone else. Duncan Foster, Raffaele De Lorenzi, Piers Pakenham-Walsh, Ammar Rayess and Kevin Day all wanted a slice of that fifth place too. Duncan and Kevin especially as it was also the top Masters honour. Needless to say that there were plenty of attempted and aborted overtaking efforts, too many presumably, to describe accurately in Microsoft Word. It was a close run finish according to the print out. Sadly for him, but thankfully for the integrity of the rules, Ammar was given a three-second penalty for having two wheels outside of the tramlines at the start. Zak Al Aufi, who finished 16th, was charged with the same offence and also awarded a three-second penalty. Raed Hassan finished in 11th ahead of Anas Al Halabi in 12th and Walid Al Qassemi in 14th. Again, I’m just typing out the results in prose when really you could get a clearer picture, and save time reading this, by clicking on the results page.
The last of the Rotax classes to be run was the DD2’s, and as you would expect, there was some karting taking place. It was a race in the typical mould, overtaking, thrills, spills, last gasp passes and field-cutting charges. Oliver George has been the man to beat over the last few races and his performances have allowed him to pull out a healthy lead in the points table. After having started from pole position, he was forced off onto the sand on the run down to the first corner. Although he never lost control of the kart, nor did he end up poking out of the barriers, he was indeed demoted to last place. No matter, he simply passed kart after kart but his ascendency ended when he reached second place. Sanad Al Rawahi had dominated since Olis’ off and won the DD2 final by a margin of 4.3 seconds, apparently. The fight for third was a good laugh, with crowd favourite, Jonathan Mowatt, holding his own in second for much of the race. Hussain Umid Ali passed by Arnaud Bouf after sitting in the Frenchman’s wake for lap after lap. He then made a dive up the inside of Jonathan at the penultimate corner on the last lap to thieve the final podium spot. Jonathan though didn’t seem too fussed as he still won the Master’s class, beating Arnaud. Saeed Al Mehairi wasn’t as fast as he had been at Dubai a fortnight ago, when he was challenging for the win, and came home in sixth. Patrick Jarjour and his beard pushed Saeed to the end and narrowly missed out on sixth, but took the third placed Master’s trophy. One, he promises, that will not be used as an ash-tray.
And there we have it…oh no; Bambinos and Honda Challenge.
Not one of the seven Bambino drivers lost a point for breaking the rules, which in the pub later that night gave me an idea. Why not, I thought, hire the services of the Bambino drivers to conduct mandatory seminars on the CIK rule book and driving conduct? No really, why not? They could be paid in free test sessions. The litt’luns proved that they are the most obedient of them all and if they maintain their professional approaches to their karting pursuits then the future of the RMC is bright.
As far as lap times are concerned, Georgie Zouein was yet again the fastest driver across both time trial runs, setting a best time of 1:22.817. Jamie Day was second fastest overall with a best of 1:23.966 and Gaia Eichenberger was third fastest with a time of 1:24.012. Ethan Walsh, who it must be said was very brave after his crash at Dubai last fortnight, set a best time of 1:26.200 and Saqir Al Qassemi posted a 1:27.433. Hamish Fosters’ best lap time was a 1:27.658 and Kris Knopjes went away with a best lap time of 1:31.716.
Finally we review the Honda Challenge, but where to start? Do we begin with my briefing plea of “go easy on my kartsâ€, or words to that effect? Or do we start with my vociferant statement after the pre-final when some drivers decided that the big red plastic thing nailed to the front of the kart should be used as a cow-catcher? I do not think we need to address anything, I think everyone knows the score. Overtaking is an acquired skill, not something you can just do haphazardly whenever you feel like it. If you are going up the inside of someone, then you have to be alongside and be sure that you can make the move stick; if you can’t then you take responsibility for the collision. Conversely, if you are being overtaken, and you can see that there is a red nose-cone there on your left, then you are beaten. Any impact is your fault because you did not allow the other driver enough space. These debates go right up to Formula 1, where the officials have technology of such complexity it put’s the US government to shame. Yet still the know-it-all drivers with their hand gestures and their lame excuses still contest. What chance do I have? In the good old days when racing drivers had moustaches and linen helmets, any incident was dealt with by a handshake and a determined drive in the next race. Food for thought…
As far as Friday’s action was concerned, it was great to see the vast majority enjoy themselves and show us all some super-dupa racing. There was drama for sure as Atef Al Barwani cruised unopposed to what looked like an easy win. Then, for no obvious reason, his chain committed suicide ending his race and severely denting his championship hopes. This then promoted Ahmed Al Shamsi who was fighting hard with Sam Zian. Sam was looking to score big to make up ground on Piers Pakenham-Walsh in the points table after last rounds disappointment. He kept Ahmed honest until he overcooked it on the exit of the hairpin, momentarily running wide. It was enough to give Ahmed some breathing room and he went on to win by six seconds, ahead of Sam. Hussain Umid Ali was awarded third place points after an operational mistake that provisionally left Piers in third. Piers was a lap down after he upset his left stub axle on the first lap; the stub axle spindle, complete with wheel, parted company with the kart. Moeen Al Sarraj was classified fourth ahead of Karim Morgan in 5th. Weamm Abdou, racing at Al Ain Raceway for the first time since the first 6-hour race came home in 7th ahead of Chris Coles who, fortunately, did not run out of fuel. Dan Price, who seemed to spend most the race just laughing to himself, was 9th ahead of Shah Rashid. The next instalment of the Honda Challenge isn’t until April, and my beautiful karts can hardly wait…
And so another 3000 word “report†is completed. Having provided you with no information of any real use, because you were all there witnessing the action for yourselves, I shall gingerly retreat back into my little cave. I do, however, have one last thing to say today. If you can email me the answers to the following questions then I will see to it that you are awarded with a special prize at the next race meeting, no really. Send the answers to these questions to marty@alainraceway.com before the Al Forsan round and I will arrange special prizes for those who get all the answers correct.
You will need to refer to the sporting regulations https://alainraceway.com/pdf/uae%20rmc%20sporting%20regs%202012-13.pdf
1 As it appears in the UAE RMC Sporting Regulations, please accurately quote regulation number 2.8.4 in its entirety.
2 In the event of a red flag situation, explain in your own words what the correct procedure is?
3 If you are starting on the back row of the grid, is it acceptable to “hang back†in order to get a faster start? Explain your answer.
4 As it appears in the UAE RMC Sporting Regulations, please accurately quote regulation number 2.10 in its entirety.
5 If you are preparing to overtake another driver, explain how you will do it safely, including how much space should be available to you.
6 As it appears in the UAE RMC Sporting Regulations, please accurately quote regulation number 9 section C in its entirety.
7 When the Bambino karts are lined up on the pre-grid ready to be released, is it considered acceptable to push in ahead of other drivers who were there before you?
8 Is it permissible to drive your kart in the paddock area, car park or up to the pre-grid on race day? Explain your answer.
9 Who is responsible for ensuring that a driver’s helmet strap is securely fastened?
10 How fast are you allowed to drive in the pit lane?
11 For extra marks, please explain in your own words what you understand by the term “racing incident�
Good luck.
Martin Fullard. On a mission.
No additional prize for guessing who the funny guy in the helmet is
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