Action during an earlier round of the Qatar Drift Championship.
Doha, Qatar: After a long hiatus of nearly four months, the highly competitive Qatar Drift Championship returns for the third round today. Sponsored by Qatar Racing Club (QRC) Chairman H E Sheikh Khalid bin Hamad Al Thani, the Championship sees broad participation from prominent drifters in Qatar and neighbouring countries.
Technical inspection for participants is scheduled to start today at 7:30 pm, followed by a briefing for the drivers before the qualifying trials which commence at 9:00 pm.
Competitors will have two runs on the track, and each will be evaluated based on their performance in each run, with the best score for each racer determining their placement in the dual match-ups of the tandem competitions.
Tomorrow, the events will begin with a briefing meeting for the racers at 8:30 pm. The elimination match-ups start at 9:00 pm, leading up to the final races. QRC had opened the track to racers yesterday from 8:30 pm until 11:30 pm to test their cars and the course for this round’s competitions.
Al Amri leads Championship, Al Jabsha tops local category
After two rounds, Omani driver Ahmed Al Amri has moved to the top of the championship standings after securing second place in the previous round, now holding 38 points, leading by a margin of 5 points over the second-placed winner of the previous round, Qatar’s Abdullah Abdullah. Meanwhile, Ali Al Jabsha and Salem Al Sarraf are tied for third place with 30 points each.
The former leader and winner of the opening round, Haitham Al Hadidi, has slipped to fifth place due to his absence from the previous round’s competitions.
In the local category which was newly introduced this season under the generous directives of QRC Director Sheikh Jabor bin Khalid Al Thani to encourage Qatari racers and residents, Ali Al Jabsha from the ‘Brothers’ team leads with 45 points, 7 points ahead of his closest competitor Abdullah Abdullah.
Al Jabsha’s teammate in the same team, Abdullah Al Muhtasib, holds third place with 33 points, just one point ahead of Saud Al Attiyah. In fifth place are tied Mubarak Al Dosari and Yazan Al Jabsha, each with 20 points.
Al Dosari will aim for a good result in this round, especially after his recent victory in the qualifying rounds for the Red Bull Car Park Drift Championship.
He is set to represent Qatar in the finals to be held in Oman later this year.
