Usual suspects take home the silverware on a  night of tricky conditions

A smaller field than normal turned up to a hot and balmy Friday night (3 July 2009) at Dubai Autodrome for Round 3 of the DAMC Sprint Challenge. The date, at the start of the holiday season and the weather conditions, were probably the main factors for the stayaway. However at the front the “usual suspects” turned up to do battle, not only against one another but also some tricky track conditions that the humidity, dust and heat invariably dished up.

Reigning Champion Hennie Sauerman (Liberty Kawasaki) is intent on doing the DAMC Sprint Challenge Championship double and again he was in top form on the night. After aborting his first run, he had some work to do to make sure of the result in the next two timed runs. He made no mistake, comfortably taking top honours in the 1000 Class and going on to take top two wheel spot at the end of evening Shootout. “Conditions were tough and slippery. But we did it and I am happy with the win.”

Second in the “big banger” 1000 Class was 2008/2009 UAE Sportbike Champion Juzar Motiwala who was trying out the KTM RC8 twin cylinder machine for the first time and although he managed second place he said, “This is a motorcycle that I have never ridden, a twin cylinder machine which I have never had the experience of trying out, which made it very difficult out there tonight.” Third place went to Taha Al Moosawi on a Honda Fireblade.

In the 600 Class, a visibly tired but satisfied Hussein Al Kooheji (Yamaha) proved, once again, hard to beat as he powered to victory on the night over Omran Al Sayed (Kawasaki) who is fast improving as a Sprint rider and could soon be in the hunt for top slot. Third place went to UAE Sportbike regular Steve Blackney (Honda).

Julian Griffin (DXB Racing Porsche) has virtually annexed the top step of the Dubai Autodrome podium during DAMC Sprint Challenge evenings. Once again he powered to victory, in Class D, over team mate Frederic Gaillard and third placed Aref Ramli (Mitsubishi Evo).

Other winners on the night included Abdul Hamid Al Awadi (Honda Civic) who won Class B, Cabell Fisher (Porsche) who took Class E honours and Class F victory going to Murat Binici (Corvette) who until this point was the quickest car driver around the Club Circuit configuration on the night.

The end of the evening Shootout, for cars, turned out to be the highlight of the night with Griffin and Murat going head to head. Earlier Murat was quickest overall by a quarter of a second. In the Shootout, which pits the three overall fastest drivers on the night, Griffin turned the tables on Murat beating him by the narrowest margin of 0.055 seconds. Thus the vastly experienced Englishman went home with two trophies for his Class and Shootout wins. Newcomer Murat, who continues to impress, will be well pleased with his performance which now sees him closer to the pace setting Griffin than ever before.

Round 4 of the DAMC Sprint Challenge takes place on Thursday 23 July 2009 at Dubai Autodrome.

Reported By:  Dubai Autodrome
Reported On: 05-07-2009