Dubai: National raceday two and the opening round of the UAE GT Championship

Dubai, Friday, 22 Oct 2010– The second National raceday featured the opening round of the Cytech UAE GT Championship and round two of both the Total UAE Touring Cars and the UAE Sportbikes. It was a usual 35°C scorching day in Dubai with almost 66% humidity, the conditions took their toll on competitors, spectators, TV crews and ….our photographers.

There was disappointment in the opening round of the Cytech UAE GT Championship as two of the top teams failed to make it onto the grid due to technical gremlins.

The House of Portier / TAM Corvette team running in the GTA class suffered a fire whilst driving along the main straight, driver Karim Al Azhari was able to evacuate from the vehicle unharmed. The cause of the fire is currently under investigation by the HoP / TAM technical team.

As a result of the technical issue with the GTA car, the team took the decision to voluntarily withdraw its GTB class Corvette from the race weekend and HoP / TAM has chosen not to run until the cause of the technical issue is resolved.

Motaz Abu-Hijleh, said. ‘It’s not an ideal way to start the season, but the safety of our drivers is our number one priority. Whilst we would have liked to have competed with both cars this weekend, we have decided not to run until we have fully investigated the technical issue with our GTA car. Our young Emirati driver, Mohammed Al Mutawaa, was looking forward to his first race in the GTB Corvette, but understands the team’s decision.’

This allowed Julian Griffin and Rob Barff cruise to victory, as the sole car in the GTA Class, in the NFS Dodge Viper.

Thee formidable pairing of Bassam Kronfli and Raed Hassan in the Ginetta G50Z also failed to make it onto the grid due to gearbox problems, despite going quickest in the morning practice.

Jon Simmonds and Tarek Elgammal took top honours in the GTB Class in their MSW Porsche GT3 Cup and Robert Cregan gave the Maserati GranTurismo their maiden win on UAE soil by powering to victory in the GTC Class.

In the Total UAE Touring Car Championship it was disappointment for rookie Andre Ramdhanny in the MSW Seat when he crashed out in practice and damaging the car beyond repair before the race. Thus Khalid Bin Hadher in the Performance Racing Seat took double wins in Class 1.

As usual Class 2 delivered the best action of the day and it was Umair Khan who took two wins in the Lap57 Honda but was made to work hard for his laurels by Spencer Vanderpal in the A2B Honda on both occasions. The two fighting all the way to the line on both occasions.

Behind them was the battle of the day between the Renault pair of Ramzi Moutran (Duel Racing) and Frederic Gaillard (NFS Racing) who were glued to each other all afternoon.

Gaillard got the better of Moutran in race one for third place and Moutran edging out Gaillard in race two, for 4th and 5th places overall.

Frederic was also racing in the GT Championship with the Lotus Evora as a single driver, but unfortunately withdraw in the race, due to the extreme heat, he couldn’t physically finish the race and brought the car in the pits after 40 min. Earlier, he finished 3rd overall in the NFS Renault Clio Cup in the first race of the UAE Touring Cars.

BMW S1000RR mounted Abdulaziz Binladin won both races in the UAE Sportbikes Class 1000, in race one and two the same fellows claimed the top positions on the podium, Ahmed Al Lanjawi in second and Tony Jordan in third.

In the 600 class Pascal Grosjean, claimed a win in both races with Abdulrahman Al Shamsi in second…..

and Alan Boyter in third in race one and Jason Burnside and Mahmoud Tannnir after his fall in race one came back determined with a third place in race two.

Next on the calendar is the Dubai Motorsport Festival on 5 November at Dubai Autodrome.