Winner Mark Holroyd (centre), runner-up Peter De Vido (left) and third-placed Adam Spence pose on the podium.
By Sports Reporter/Doha
Defending champion Mark Holroyd began his new season of the Qatar Challenge yesterday at Losail International Circuit, with a victory.
A total of thirteen cars took part in the opening round of the championship, where Holroyd dominated the race from the start until the end of the fifteen laps. Holroyd, who got the pole position earlier in practice, gave no chance for other drivers to overtake him. The British driver crossed the checkered flag ahead of Peter De Vido. “The race was fantastic for me. We put a lot of effort all over the summer and fortunately my sponsors came back to me to support me this season. Now we are having 15 laps, it is more difficult compared to last year. It is more like an endurance race now for me. Very happy with the result, everything went well, which is always nice when you prepare for something so hard,” said Holroyd.
The runner-up of the last season, Canadian driver Peter De Vido, hopes to have a nice battle with Holdroyd and fight for the championship. “It was a very good race today, very challenging because of the heat, but a usual very good fair driving. This is the best championship in the Middle East. Thanks to my sponsor Quanto Bello Qatar and the rest of the drivers for supporting me,” De Vido stated.
The third position in the podium went to new comer from Australia Adam Spence. “This is my first race in Qatar. I am so excited to be in the podium. I was ecstatic just to make it to the start line and even more happy to be here in the podium. I have been racing here at Losail before but this extremely heat is something I haven’t experienced before. I want to thank all the people who supported me and I am looking forward to the coming round,” Adam said.
Mohamed Saad Al Morraikhi, QMMF General Secretary, presented the trophies to the winners. The next round for Qatar Challenge will be on 6th November.
Cudlin and Abdulaziz take pole positions
Meanwhile, the start of the new season of Qatar Superbike Championship kicked off yesterday under the floodlights at the Losail International Circuit. For this year, there will be two categories separated with a total of 22 riders taking part in the Superbike and the rest 26 riders in the Supersport category.
In the Supersport category, pole position went to Saudi Arabian rider Abulaziz Bin Ladin in his Kawasaki ZX6R with a timing qualifying time of 2:08.588. Bin Ladin was happy to start today’s race from the front.
“The qualifying session was a bit difficult because we didn’t have too much practice time. I am happy for the pole position, but we still have to improve the lap timing as we are off the pace than we were last year,” he said. Qatari rider Fahid Al Sowaidi with a lap time of 2:09.805 will begin the race from second spot.
Serbian rider Manca Katrasnik set the best time in the women’s category, which was seventh overall. “I am really happy with the result. I didn’t imagine I will go so fast because in the last season my last race was not very good so I didn’t expect this good times. I hope that tomorrow for the race my lap timing will be better and I can get a good result,” said Manca.
In the Superbike category, five-time champion Alex Cudlin took pole. “It is good to start the season on pole. The bike was good. We haven’t changed anything from the last season and all we did was to change the oil and here we are… in this temperature. I feel confident and I can do 5/10 fast laps but for sure Mishal will be there as he is always is and some others too will give a tough fight. We’ll see how it foes tomorrow, but I am very happy to be on pole,” Cudlin said.
Nina Prinz, who wil start from the second place in the grid, said: “It was great a session for me. In the first qualifying we had some problems in the fuel pump and a little bit with the electronics and I was not so happy about the first qualifying. But the bike was fine and I think I can go faster in the race. I am very happy with the second position,” noted Nina.
The runner-up of the last season, Mishal Al Naimi will start in the third place in the grid today. He encountered some problems with the radiator of his bike and couldn’t do a good lap timing. The fourth position in the grid will be for Saeed Al Sulaiti and Rajini Krishnan of India will be in fifth place. Martin Bexon was the fastest rider in the veterans category inside the Supersport category. Races will be held today at 18:00 and 21:10 for Superbike category and at 19:30 and 22:30 for Supersport category.
