Qatar Racing Club Director Sheikh Jabor bin Khalid Al Thani poses for a photograph with the podium winners.
Doha, Qatar: In the midst of intense competition and breath-taking duels, the first round of the Qatar Drag Racing Championship (QDRC) for the new 2023/2024 season concluded in the early hours of yesterday. The championship, held under the gracious patronage of H E Sheikh Khalid bin Hamad Al Thani, the Chairman of the Qatar Racing Club, witnessed record participation with 138 racers across 15 categories. The top qualifiers in 11 categories secured their places in the final races, claiming victory.
One notable instance was in the new category introduced this year, the 8 Cylinder Pro category.
Action during one of the final races of the first round.
The racer Majed Al Sharshani, who topped the qualifying sessions, clinched the title by defeating Ahmed Al Emadi in the final showdown, with Abdullah Ali securing the third position. In a similar fashion, the Super Stock category saw Ahmed Al Emadi emerge victorious over last season’s champion, Nawaf Al Ansari, who settled for second place. Meanwhile, Mohammed Al Nabit claimed the third position in this category.
Four categories of the current season witnessed the reigning champions clinching the title in the first round to kick off their title defence in an optimal manner. The first of these categories was the 4 Cylinder Modified, where Waseem Agha managed to overcome Bahraini racer Mahmoud Ali Abbas in the final showdown, with the third place going to Abdulaziz Al Hajjar.
The same scenario repeated in the truck competitions, both in the Stock and Modified categories. The defending champion in the Stock category, Abdullah Al Hamadi, secured the title of this round by defeating his competitor Mahmoud Diab in the final face-off, while the third place went to Faisal Mohammed. In the Modified category, title holder Khalifa Al Khalaf surpassed his rival Saeed Al Madahka in the final, with the latter settling for the second place, and the third place going to Abdulaziz Saqr.
The last of the categories that saw the titleholder’s victory was the Real Street Bike category. Dawood Al Sharshani triumphed in the final race of this category against his compatriot Youssef Ali Karam, while the third place on the podium went to Shahed Muneer.
On the other hand, the Super Street category witnessed strong surprises, as Khaled Al Sultan, with the second-best time in this round, climbed to the top spot on the podium after his victory in the final face-off against the fastest qualifier, Badr Al Sharshani. The latter faced issues that led him to settle for the second podium position, while Hamad Al Muftah, who finished third, completed the podium.
The same scenario was repeated in the 6 Cylinder Modified category, with the fourth-place qualifier in the qualifying trials, Hassan Al Hamar, winning the title. He defeated the trials’ leader, Rashid Al Jhani, in the final, while the third place went to Ali Al Jhani.
The modified category witnessed the victory of the qualifying trials leader, Walid Salim, clinching the title at the expense of his competitor Badr Al Khalaf, who settled for second place.
Meanwhile, the third spot went to Fahad Al Raisi. In the stock category, Ali Azm followed a similar path, dominating the qualifying trials and securing the title by defeating Akram Al Rashidi in the final. The third-place went to Ibrahim Al Muntafiqi.
As for the first-round titles in the 6-cylinder stock and 4-cylinder stock categories, Hamad Al Mansour and Marc Frederic Seguy claimed victory in their respective final matches against Mohammed Saeed and Armando Austria, who settled for second place in each category.
The third position in both categories was secured by Amr Abdullah and Cristiano Sarmiento, respectively.
The title for the stock motorcycle category was decided in favour of Shahid Muneer, who topped the qualifying trials, faced off in the final, and defeated Mohammed Al Daroish. Hamad Al Muhannadi secured the third position in the competition.
With the increase in the number of championship categories to 15 this year, the organizing committee decided to conduct the elimination competitions for the ET categories for cars and bikes (which witnessed the largest number of participants) on Thursday.
The awards ceremony for cars saw Yousif Abu Daya clinching the first place, while the second place went to Rafael Alvaran, and the third to Regi Kansani. As for the bike awards, the top three spots were secured by Osama Wahid, Ouzair Ismail, and Kazem Sadeqi in first, second, and third places, respectively.
At the end of the competitions, Sheikh Jabor bin Khalid Al Thani, the Director of Qatar Racing Club, crowned the top three winners in each category, amidst a distinguished presence of media and motor sports enthusiasts.
