Zaid Ashkanani celebrates with his Porsche GT3 Cup trophy, while, at bottom, Pavel Nedobity powers to win in the Qatar Challenge.
By Sports Reporter/Doha
Kuwait’s Zaid Ashkanani made it two wins out of two in Qatar as he once again led from start to finish in Race 2 of Round 4 of the Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge at Losail International Circuit, reducing the gap to series leader Clemens Schmid down to just 6 points at the top of the Drivers’ Standings.
Round 4 represented the symbolic start of the second half of the season with the drivers once again being tested on the floodlit track just a night after Race 1 which, in a rare turn of events, finished with the same top three drivers on the podium in exactly the same positions; Clemens Schmid of Al Nabooda was second with Fahad al-Gosaibi of Classic Arabia third. Despite practicing in the warm Doha sun, the racers qualified and competed in night conditions making Qatar one of the most technically challenging races in the series.
After winning in almost identical conditions the day before Ashkanani won two races in a row for the first time since joining the Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge Middle East almost three years ago. Ahead of Race 2 the Kuwaiti posted the fastest time of the entire weekend in qualifying, and proceeded to show real racing talent as he defended his position from Fahad Algosaibi and Clemens Schmid. With the pair behind seeming to have a little more pace than Ashkanani in the early stages, the young Kuwaiti found his power in the later laps and built a healthy advantage to take the chequered flag with room to spare. The win means Ashkanani now sits six points behind Schmid in the overall championship with four more races to go in the season.
Speaking after his first victory of the season Ashkanani said: “I’m very happy because it was my first double victory of the series. It was not an easy race and I didn’t have a perfect start that’s for sure. I was hoping that Fahad and Clemens would scrap a little which would allow me to build a lead but Clemens got past him early and started putting pressure on me. He was pushing his car as hard as possible to close the gap and was getting tight to me but as his tyres wore I was in a better position and could get away in the second half of the race. It’s a great result and it moves me closer to Clemens in the Drivers’ Standings so I’m happy. Next stop is Dubai and I like the circuit there so I can’t wait to get back in the car. I will try to stay focused for Dubai as I did for this race. This weekend I have gained a lot more confidence so that is also good for Dubai.”
The drivers now look to Round 5 set to take place at Dubai Autodrome, the home ground of both Skydive Dubai Falcons and team standings leaders Al Nabooda Racing. The Dubai weekend has all the hallmarks of a season defining weekend with Skydive Dubai just a few points behind Al Nabooda Racing and Clemens Schmid looking to defend from Zaid Ashkanani’s late attack on the Drivers’ Standings. After the Dubai weekend the drivers will have to wait until the final showdown in Bahrain which will act as a support race to the official Bahrain Grand Prix weekend in April.
Meanwhile, Pavel Nedobity got his first win of the season in the Qatar Challenge. In the fifth round of QCH, the Czech Republic driver, who is driving under QMMF licence, took the pole position earlier in the qualifying session and stared first position on the grid.
The Lotus Exige driver took the lead from the beginning and lap by lap managed to increase the gap with Mark Holroyd and crossed the chequered flag with a difference of 15.127 ahead of Holroyd.
“It was a good race, I had fun. In the first corner I just blocked Mark from his attack and he was trying for two or three laps. But at the end he was not challenging me and from that moment I just had to manage the tyres, the brakes and make it sure I bring it home,” Nedobity said.
The leader of the championship, Mark Holroyd, started in second position in the grid and finished in second place.
Peter De Vido from Canada came third in the podium.
In the second race of the weekend for Radical Middle East Cup, the victory was again claimed by Ollie Smith and Eric Zimmerman in the Supersports category. The French duo Roman Loffreda and Romain Lutter came in second position and Sameh al-Qubaisi and Tarek Elgammal from AlQubaisi/AbuDhabi Racing finished third.
