UAE: Nick Canal crowned new Formula Gulf 1000 Champion

Mar 29th 2013 – Formula Gulf 1000 – The Final rounds of the Formula Gulf 1000 series was a nail biting finale right down to the final laps on the Dubai Autodrome 3.5km National circuit. However seventeen year old Spanish/American student Nick Canal was crowned 2012/13 Formula Gulf 1000 Champion after securing two top 5 finishes in the final rounds 13 & 14 of this extremely competitive single-seater series.

PDF of Results here

2013 Championship Points Sheet

GulfSport Trophy Points

But it was an all Malaysian top three on the raceday podium as drivers, Rahul Mayer, Natasha Seatter and Weiron Tan who took the podium spots in rounds 13 and 14.

Qualifying saw newcomer Weiron Tan take the pole positon with a time of 1:22.95 followed by Rahul Mayer on 1:23.13 and fast female Natasha Seatter on the second row with 1:23.38 joined there with Nick Canal on 1:23.60. Haytham Sultan, now in his second season of FG1000 on 1:24.23 and newcomer rookie driver Saeed BinTouq just behind on 1:24.68 and Harsh Rajpal on 1:26.3

Straight after lunch round 13 was notable for the poor start that Caterham F1 Academy driver Weiron Tan made which left him a huge amount of work to do spinning at the first turn after slight contact with Haytham Sultan, who took avoiding action over the kerb and badly damaged his front wing. Weiron Tan now made what seamed an easy win, hard work as he clawed his way back through the field, with no other drivers sparing him an inch to move. Mayer by this time had made good his escape as he tore off in front with no challengers throughout the 20 lap race. Nick Canal however went wide on turn 16 on the last lap fending off Tan, allowing the Malaysian to skip past to take the third place. The race was won by Mayer, followed by Seatter and Tan, Canal in fourth and Bintouq making up the top five.

Later in the afternoon during round 14 at 4:15pm with the sun low in the sky into turn one saw three cars dive into turn one, as the dust cleared Weiron Tan got the holeshot from the second row to go on to win the race from Seatter who squeezed past pole man Mayer to take second place. Rahul Mayer finished 3rd. Nick canal was fending off the charge from Bintouq as by this time Canal’s tyres were finished and had a tough job securing those much needed final points.

Overall on the day Nick Canal had done enough to secure his Championship title. After accepting the perpetual cup, already engraved with the name of last years winner Lebanese ace Joe Ghanem, Nick had this to say to Circuitprodigital,

“Im so happy to have achieved what i set out to do, it was not easy and the wins didn’t always come, but i tried to focus on bringing the car home in one piece at every race to keep my points tally up, strategically i had a strong lead in the championship, there were a few moments when i thought i had thrown it all away but i just tried to keep my focus and not get disillusioned. I really want to thank my family for all the support as they are the ones who have given me this opportunity, without them i would not be accepting this Champions trophy today.” commented Nick Canal.

Running in parallel to the official Championship was a second award, which includes the International drivers outside of the GCC region named the GulfSport Trophy.

This was also decided in the very last race when Natasha Seatter picked up yet another 2nd place finish giving her only a 2 point lead over Rahul Mayer which was enough to pick up the prestigious GulfSport Trophy.

At the awards ceremony it was announced that Natasha Seatter has been offered a professional drive in the Asia Porsche Carrera Cup series, Weiron Tan is moving up to Formula Renault in the UK, and Rahul Mayer is about to start in the BRDC Formula 4 Championship. A fourth Formula Gulf 1000 driver is expected to announce a significant move in the next week when the sponsorship deal is finalized.

“As a professionally run driver development series this is a great achievement for GulfSport Racing who run the FG1000 series and provides a strong inventive for new drivers looking to take up single seater racing in the UAE. ”

“We are extremely grateful to the parents and sponsors for supporting these very talented young drivers. I have no doubt we will see them making successful racing careers and its been a pleasure to help them on their way. We now look forward to training the next batch of the region’s best racers.” GulfSport Racing’s team principal said.