The UAE karting season this weekend reaches its climax when the UAE Rotax MAX Challenge 2014/15 takes place on Friday and Saturday at Al Ain Raceway, with all but one of the National Championship title categories still up for grabs and double-points available on the last day.
The most fiercely contested category is the premier DD2 class where reigning world champion Sean Babington holds the slenderest of leads over rival and reigning UAE champion Piers Pakenham-Walsh, with newly crowned Oman champion Sanad Al Rawahi also in contention.
“The season’s gone very well this year; we won the championship last year and we tried to defend it this year, but it’s been a bit more difficult,” Pakenham-Walsh, 18, said. “Sean Babington joined, he was crowned the world champion in November so it’s meant I’ve had to up my game and try and improve myself and think I’ve managed to do that this year.”
“There’s only seven points in it, and basically whoever wins the race on Saturday will win the championship.”
With so many positions still undecided, does Pakenham-Walsh believe the standards of karting have been raised in the UAE?
“Significantly, not just in my class, but watching the other classes as well,” he said.
“The number of drivers has increased ten-fold over the last couple of years and I think this year there are at least four people in my class that can win the race.
“In the Micro Max classes there are at least six or seven people who can win the race. So it’s very competitive now and it’s starting to become a proper championship that people are hearing about across the globe and people want to come here and race from Europe.”
In the DD2 Masters (over 31 years old) category, Jonathan Mowatt goes into the final race leading a congested field. Any of Maurits Knopjes, Andrew Fuller, Kevin Day and Tony Hogg could still catch him.
The one title already decided is the UAE Max Championship, Englishman Tom Bale having disappeared over the horizon with series of wins throughout the season. And while he cannot be caught, there is still interest in the battle for second place between Giulio Peroni and Patrick Hannah.
Taymour Kermanshahchi, with nine wins out of 11 races, remains strong favourite to win the Junior Max division, although any slip could see him caught by Fraser Rose. Emirati driver Amna Al Qubaisi, who has had four podium finishes this season including a second position in the last race, is still in with a chance of finishing third overall, but she will need to overtake Khalid Al Wahaibi, Alain Bauwmans and Jakob Robinson to do so.
The Mini Max title is Sem Knopjes’s to lose, but, mathematically, he can still be caught by Liam Crystal, Shihab Al Habsi and Lachlan Robinson. Meanwhile the Micro Max category has six drivers including Ziggy Kermanshahchi, Jamie Day and Theo Kekati all vying for the title.
Qualifying heats take place tomorrow, the pre-finals on Saturday morning and the finals set to run between 1.30pm and 4.30pm.
akhaled@thenational.ae
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