Friday, Apr 20, 2007

Dubai: An exciting fare of racing lies in store for motor sport fans when round four of the UAE Karting Championship takes off at Dubai Autodrome's Kartdrome today while some distance away the EMSF's Karting Centre will be host to round three of the UAE Autocross Championship, with these rounds signalling an end to the first half of the motor sport season for this year.

In round three of the karting championship held on March 23, Ramez Azzam and Karim Sa'ad romped home in their respective categories while Waleed Afani and Alan Nawfal continued their dominance in the autocross championship in the last round held on March 9.

In the Rotax Max Challenge, Azzam and Hasher Maktoum are running neck-to-neck but the spirited Scott Latham could come up from behind to pose a serious challenge to the two title contenders as only five and 20 points separate him from the pack leader and his nearest rival.

Pushing hard

Though Paul Velasco sits tight with 318 points to his credit in the Rotax Masters class, challenger John Mace with 307 is not far behind while Stuart Duthie with 196 points will have to push hard if he intends to unseat the second position holder.

Mohammad Bannai who did not start round three in the DD2 class nevertheless heads the pack with 236 points with Ronan McElroy a distant second with 211 points, also from two outings and Saeed Al Shamsi in third with 201 points from two rounds.

In the Cadets class, young Elliott Patrick appears to be continuing from where he left off last year and leads his group with 356 points to his credit followed by J. Boyd-Marritt with 339 points and Riccardo Curatola in third with 338 points, just one point behind the second-placed Boyd-Marritt.

The TAG light and heavy categories will see seasoned karters Timothy Murdock, Noah Ali Reza, Michael Bale and Allan Lally jostle for the first place in their respective classes. Murdock, however, has a huge lead of 100 points over his nearest rival Ali Reza in the light category while Bale with 331 points credit is way ahead of Lally by 118 points.

In the Juniors category, Asad Rehman leads the pack while Wafic Abla and Millie Coleman-Straw are neck-to-neck with just one point separating the two.

Gulf News 2007. All rights reserved.