Sports | Wednesday 11 October, 2017 2:34 pm |

Veteran racers ruled the night during the Sodi World Series (SWS) Sprint Series on Monday (9 October) at Dubai Kartdrome.  Emirati aces Saeed Al Mehairi and Atef Al Barwani dominated the Senior Cup and Masters, and Kyle Kumaran took top honours in the Junior Cup.

 

SWS Senior Cup & Masters
 

Saeed Al Mehairi was out of the SWS Sprint Series for the summer, but returned to action without any loss in form, maintaining a near perfect run on his way to winning the round.

 

Maz Nawaz was the only one to stand in Al Mehairi’s way, striking first by nabbing pole position in qualifying with a best lap time of 1:12.141.

 

Following the qualifying, Al Mehairi went two-for-two on the evening, winning both heats and claiming the maximum 80 points.  Nawaz put up a brilliant fight, missing out by just 0.228 seconds in race one and 0.158 seconds in race two, which earned him second place overall on 72 points.  Romaldo Labrooy claimed the third step on the podium with 61 points.

 

Al Mehairi was pleased with his return.  He said, “It was good to come back and win the race today.  I think it will really boost me for the upcoming 700 kilometres round (Dubai Kartdrome Endurance Championship).”

 

Multiple Senior Cup champion, Atef Al Barwani, cruised to victory in the Masters category.  It was a show of class perfection, with Al Barwani topping qualifying and both heats to seal his bid on the Masters trophy with 37 points total.  Gary Jones took home second place silverware with 25 points, just pipping out Juergen Schmitz for third on 24 points.

 

 

 

SWS Junior Cup

 

Despite a challenging qualifying session early on, Kyle Kumaran put together two consistent races on his way to the top step of the podium.

 

With a best lap time of 1:22.455, Kumaran could only manage seventh on the starting grid, a full 1.761 seconds off the pace of the leader, Hugo Gid.

 

When the start lights went out, Kumaran proved he had the race pace, climbing to third place by the end of heat one and then claiming the outright win in heat two.

 

Steady driving and consistent finishes earned Kumaran the first place trophy after scoring 73 points in two heats.  Federico Al Rifai had an impressive run, qualifying in tenth place early on, only to bounce back and win heat one and nab second place overall with 66 points.  Patrick Debattista also amassed 66 points, but Al Rifai’s heat win dropped Debattista into third place on the night.

 

On the podium Kumaran remarked, “Qualifying went horribly, I finished seventh, but then I had some really good luck to finish third and then first.  I also set the fastest lap, so I’m quite happy.”

 

“It was my mom’s birthday when we had IAME racing last week; she was at the track with me even though it was her birthday. This trophy is for her.” He added.