Mahmoud Tannir battles with Erikas Savickas during Race 2 of the Motorcity UAE Sportbikes
Mar 29th, 2013- The Motorcity UAE Sportbikes delivered some of the best racing on an action packed day, with reigning champion Mahmoud Tannir ending the day a step closer to the title, but by his own admission still a lot of work to do on the final race day of the season next month.
Race 1 saw the resurgence of Joe Oxley who gave one of his best rides to date to take 600 Class victory on his Ducati followed closely by Yamaha mounted Erikas Savickas – the two separated by only 0.298 seconds as they crossed the finish line nose to tail.
Tannir, aboard the Dusejao Motos Triumph was third after having contend with traffic until the fina fewl laps, and he managed to break through and claim third place and bag some important points
Championship leader before the start, Surya Raja, was riding with injuries sustained during a race in Qatar a week earlier. Nevertheless the youngster put on a brave performance to finish fourth on his Yamaha.
In Race 2 Tannir managed to get ahead of the pack early on and thereafter ride a controlled race to claim his second 600 Class victory of the day, although he was pursued relentlessly by fellow Triumph mounted Ron Nicholas who crossed the finish line and less than half a second down on the reigning champion. Savickas, enjoying one of his best race days of the season was third.
But it was bad luck for Raja, who crashed while battling among the leaders. He explained, “It has been a tough challenge to ride with the injuries I sustained in Qatar. But I gave it my best shot and was happy with third in race one. In the second race things were going well but I had to take avoiding action while battling with another rider and crashed out alone rather than wiping out both of us. This cost us points in the championship for sure, but we will bounce back and the aim is to win both races on the final day.”
Tannir, who has been on the back-foot throughout the season, has shown champion resolve and is starting to look the favourite to retain the title.
He said afterwards, “It was a good day in the end, although in the first race I got stuck in some traffic and by the time I managed to get through it all I was too far back to make an impact for the lead, but third was okay. In the second race I got ahead of the traffic, and with good calls from my pit wall managed to stay ahead and take the win. I still think anything can happen and I will take each of the final two races as they come. We will see what happens in the end.”
Ducati’s well respected international test rider Dario Marchetti was entered in the 1000 Class to ride the Italian marque’s new state-of-the-art Panigale and challenge Abdulaziz Binladen, the pace setter in the UAE’s one litre motorcycle class.
Binladen on a new Honda in Saudi Falcons colours rose to the occasion, winning both races comprehensively.
In the first race BMW mounted Nasser Al Shaiba was best of the rest in second place and Marchetti taking third.
In Race 2 Binladen was again untouchable but this time Marchetti got the better of Al Shaiba, the pair finish second and third respectively.
Marchetti said, “It has been great to race here at Dubai Autodrome. It is a very technical and challenging track to ride, which I like. Well done to Binladen, he was very strong today and here in the UAE there are some very good riders. The standard is good.”
“Ducati in Dubai wanted me to prove that the Panigale can run with the leaders as an off the shelf stock bike. We have done nothing to it in terms of race setup, even the gearing was wrong for this National Circuit configuration, and yet it was very impressive. I hope to be back next season and with proper race preparation we should be competitive.”
Binladen summed up his day, “The Honda is a new bike for me which I am still getting used to. The times are not quite there compared to the BMW, but I am still getting use to the new bike. Nevertheless two wins in two races is good.”
