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Successful second round of the Middle East Karting Cup 2009
Published by Bas Kaligis 6 juli 2009 21:37 - Print | | Saturday was Finals day in Round 2 of the Middle East Karting Cup 2009 at Ghibli Raceway. The Pre-Finals were raced in the morning and the Finals in the afternoon. The two drivers that had dominated each class duly took the major honors. But there had been plenty of incident and good racing to entertain the spectators all day.
In the Senior class, championship leader Piero De Marchi of Italy had to start the Pre-Final on row 3 having missed the final heat on Friday afternoon. Scott Lathem from UAE was the early leader, but Piero De Marchi took the lead at the quarter race distance and went to win comfortably. Scott Lathem was second, but Dory Aoun from Lebanon had a superb drive into the third place.
The only lady racer in the event Maria Michael from Cyprus had her best race of the weekend to finish an excellent fourth. In the Final Scott Lathem was the surprise early leader and held off the challenge of Piero De Marchi for three laps. However, on the fourth lap Piero went past and maintained his lead to the finish. Chant Etyemezian from Lebanon and Nicos Demetriou from Cyprus both came strongly through the field and at three-quarter race distance Chant was challenging Scott Lathem for the second place. However, with just four laps to go Scott's engine seized and his race was over. Chant finished second and Nicos joined him and Piero on the podium. Dory Aoun of Lebanon completed a good weekend in fifth place and the lady driver Maria Michael was sixth.
In the Junior class, Heinrich Watson-Miller who lives in England, but has a German mother and British father completed a clean sweep. He was unbeaten throughout the event and won the Final easily. William Steel from Lebanon came through from the back to finish second in the Pre-Final in front of Yazan Hamadeh from Syria. In the Final William retained his second place throughout the race, but the unfortunate Yazan suffered a puncture and although he battled on bravely, he finished only fifth. Michael Patrick Azar started the Final on the back row, but came through to finish third.
An interesting feature of the Final was the close battle between the two brother from Libya Amin and Hassan Soufrakis, although later in the race Hassan had an engine problem and dropped down to sixth. Amin just missed a podium place finishing fourth.
This was the first time that drivers from Lebanon had raced at Ghibli Raceway and their fans produced a great atmosphere with the cheers and waving the Lebanese flag. It was also the first appearance in the Middle East Karting Cup at Ghibli Raceway for drivers from Cyprus and Saudi Arabia.
The 2009 Middle East Karting Cup has its climax this coming weekend when history will be made. All races will be during the hours of darkness under floodlights. This will be the first time that a CIK-FIA sanctioned event has taken place under the floodlights. So, Ghibli Raceway follows Singapore in Formula 1 and Qatar in Moto GP into the record book.
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MEER NIEUWS OVER OTHER KARTINGNEWS
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