The remaining third heat for each class was held Friday to decide who would qualify through to Saturday’s finals and who must face the Second race that afternoon.
William Bamber and Mats Van den Brand were successful in winning one race each in Junior Max, with the field of 72 being divided into four groups for the heats. It was Takamoto Katsuta and Kevin Korjus who both put up a good battle but could only manage 2nd place in their respective races, while Mikael Grenier and Daniel Rochford did their best for 3rd. Disappointment for Luke Varley of Great Britain who came into the meeting as a likely chance for the title, when he lost vital positions after an incident in the first senior race of the day. The laptimes were faster overall on the second day of racing seeing 13-year-old Japanese Junior Champion Ryuya Fujie setting the best lap in the last heat with a 58.787.
In Seniors Ben Cooper added a win to his impressive results the day before, not to mention clocking the best time (57.867) and the United States posted their first victory in Al Ain when Arie Ouimet claimed the final race. Ricardo Romkema and Mike Simpson each took 2nd place in their heats with David Perel getting it a hat-trick to make it three 3rds over the two days’ racing. New Zealand’s Paul Cameron was one of the fastest on-track during Thursday’s heats, so his 3rd today was well-deserved. David Sera was the provisional winner of the heat later awarded to Cooper, after a controversial technical infringement saw the Aussie driver eventually excluded from the race.
Five seconds was the gap Pier-Luc Ouellette had over Morgan Riche as he crossed the finish line in the first DD2 heat of the day and also drove the quickest lap of the 2-speed races. Chemill Mercado took 3rd but unfortunately still had to face the Second Chance Race afterwards. The final race on the program went to Kyle Lawrence with Makoto Kubo 2nd followed closely by former Junior Max Grand Finals winner and pace-setter Kenneth Hildebrand of Estonia.
The Second Chance Races gave six drivers in each class a final chance to qualify for the finals and as always, there were some very relieved drivers who never expected to be in it. The following made it through while for those not so lucky, their 2007 Grand Finals had come to an end.
Junior Max – Oliver Juhasz, Max Hawkins, Luis Carlos Martinez, Indy Dontje, Kenneth Andrews and Nicolas Claes
Senior Max – Jeffrey Van Bergeijk, Nick Lindeman, Thiago Parazinho, Michael Andersson, Michael Vincec and Christoph Ernst
Rotax DD2 – Chemill Mercado, Gonzalo Aponte, Gerry Hargitai, Kris Shaw, Curtis Cooksey and Joshua Hart |
