After a long hiatus of nearly four months, the wheel of the Qatar Drift Championship returns to spin anew with the start of the third round, sponsored by HE Sheikh Khalid bin Hamad al-Thani, Chairman of Qatar Racing Club, and with broad participation from drift champions in Qatar and neighbouring countries.
Technical inspection for participants is scheduled to start at half past seven in the evening, followed by a briefing meeting for the racers with the championship’s organising committee and judging panel at half past eight, before the qualifying trials commence at nine in the evening.
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 matchups of the tandem competitions.
On Friday, the events will begin with a briefing meeting for the racers at half past eight in the evening, at the same time when the elimination matchups start at nine in the evening, leading up to the final races. The club had opened the track to racers on Wednesday from half past eight until half past eleven to test their cars and the course for this round’s competitions.
With the conclusion of the second round of competitions, Omani racer 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, Qatari Abdullah Abdullah. Meanwhile, racers 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 competitions, newly introduced this season under the generous directives of Sheikh Jabor bin Khalid al-Thani, Director of Qatar Racing Club, to encourage Qatari racers and residents, Ali al-Jabsha from the “Brothers” team leads with 45 points, seven 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 racer 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, representing Qatar in the finals to be held in Oman later this year.
