Mansour Dbeissy and Ahmed El Kholay yesterday emerged as creditable winners of Group A and Group B races respectively as participants scrambled for final berths after round three of the Qatar Online Racing Championship (QORC).
Dbeissy clocked a time of 35:44.872 seconds to seal the deal in Group A and joined points leader Oman's Zakariya Al Ofi and Khalid Al Maraghi for Monday's final competition. During yesterday's Group A battle, Al Maraghi finished second (+57.238) while Omani participant in the virtual WRC8 German Rally, Zakariya ended Group A competition in third spot (+58.159). Dbeissy (106 points) yesterday exhibited fine form by clinching five of the seven stages in round 3. Zakariya (113 points) and Al Maraghi (108) finished a notch above Dbeissy in overall standings.
However, due to a tie among the participants, four drivers from Group B yesterday were allowed to qualify for Monday's action. El Kholy clinched the battle in Group B with four stage wins (35: 33.486 seconds) and finished ahead of Kuwait's Mishari Al Thefiri (+7.137) and Oman's Ammar Bulushi (+30.329). In a daredevil round of driving, Al Thefiri produced a stunning session to make it to the final after a tie with Qatar's world champion Adel Abdulla who was fourth fastest yesterday. Al Thefiri, who was fourth before the start of the third round, finished a notch behind El Kholy yesterday.
Abdulla, who was unbeaten in the qualifying stages, failed to repeat the form once again and slid to overall fourth from second. But having tied with 100 points with Al Thefiri, he made it to the final as there was an extra spot for the final race.
Originally only three from each group were slated to qualify for the final. Ammar Bulushi finished top of the group with 113 points, six better than El Kholy, despite finishing third yesterday. Qatar Motor and Motorcycle Federation (QMMF) Executive Director Amro Al Hamad yesterday said: “They (Al Thefiri and Abdulla) were tied with 100 points.
We still had one extra space in the final race. It will be interesting that way as we will have racers from Qatar, Oman and Kuwait in the final including one ex-world champion.” The winner will receive QR15,000 in prize money. The runner-up will take home QR13,000.
