The unusually heavy rain caused by local cloud seeding abated to leave familiar blue skies and perfect weather for motor racing on the 5.4kms Dubai Autodrome GP Circuit. It was fascinating to see the inaugural 2006 Gulf Radical Cup champion, Karim Al Azhari at the event with his 16 year old son Keanu, who was leading the F4 UAE Championship.
The Saturday morning quali session offered a hint of what to expect with two talented 16 year olds fighting it out for pole position in the 25 minute Sprint races that would take place later that day. In the end it was young Mexican Ian Aquilera beating the British young gun, Luke Hilton by just 44 hundredths of a second with a time of 2:01.273.
With the temperatures back into the high 20s, the first Sprint Race kicked off with a bang as 14 cars arrived into Turn 1at 120mph. Hilton got the best start but through the next couple of turns the fight for 2nd place was intense with current champion Alex Bukhantsov (have just won the Asian Lemans Series in his LMP3 car at YAS last weekend), his rival Usmaan Mughal, Alim Geshev and Aquilera in the mix. The second lap saw Hilton starting to gap Bukhantsov, followed by Aquilera, Geshev, Jimmy Chou, Mughal, Amir Feyzulin, Joel Strijder, Abdulnasr AlHameedi, Igor Sorokin, Ibby Hadeed, Jahid Kareem, Johnny Khazzoum and Julien Monie. Aquilera’s pressure on Bukhantsov paid off as the champion uncharacteristically went wide on Turn 14 gifting Aquilera P2 and allowing Geshev to try the same approach. The battles raged on and Hilton put on a great performance to extend his lead to 5 seconds when, with just 7 minutes to go, disaster struck as Hilton pulled off the back straight with a fuel pump issue.
So at the flag it was the young Mexican closely followed by Bukhantsov and Geshev.
The second Sprint Race started with Aquilera on pole, Geshev on P2, Mughal on P3 and Hilton on P4. The pack came slowly around the last turn (16) in perfect rolling start formation and with eyes focused on the gantry lights it was P2 man Geshev who was ahead of the pole man as the lights went out. Would he get a penalty? Geshev held the lead into turn 1 and took the lead of the race. Out of position was Alex Bukhantsov after a very troublesome quali session put him at the back of the grid, but with determination he was very quickly making up positions on the first lap. Mughal, 2nd in the championship was chasing Hilton into Turn 10 at the end of the back straight, but as Hilton shut the door on a fast approaching Mughal, he ended up spinning which dropped him to last place but got going again quickly.
The order after the first crucial lap was Geshev, Aquilera, Feyzulin, Hilton, Bukhantsov, Chou, Khazzoum, Monie, Hadeed, Al Hameedi, Strijder, Sorokin, Karrim and Mughal. But Aquilera was to get past Geshev to take the lead of the race as Mughal picked up several places towards the back of the field, with Bukhantsov right behind him in 5th place. Hilton, putting in some impressive lap times now took 3rd place away from Feyzulin. So it was another convincing victory for the young Aguilera.
Sunday morning saw a short quali session to determine the starting grid for the main 45 minute Endurance Race. Aguilera sat on pole with the current champion sitting to his left on P2, Hilton and Geshev on the second row, Feyzulin and Mughal on the third row, behind them were Chou and AlHameedi, Sorokin and Hadeed , Khazzoum and Karim, with Strijder and Monie on the last row. The Gulf Radical Cup grid always presents a very international flavour, and here we had drivers from Taiwan, Russia, St Kitts & Neavis, Mexico, UK, Pakistan, UAE, Canada, France, Holland and Lebanon. Meaning that many air miles are gained across the gird at each event, but none more than 17 year old Chou. He flys to every event from Taiwan. He shoots straight from school to the airport, lands just before testing. Then back to the airport and into school in Taiwan. I think thats called “commitment” - great to see!
The 45 minute race got off to a blistering and extremely wide start as they went downhill into Turn 1, a 17 metre wide right-hand bend similar to Paddock Hill Bend at Brands Hatch; a blind entry corner that requires commitment and accuracy and is one of several overtaking opportunities on the circuit. At the bottom of the hill after T1, T2 is a left hand high speed kink which compresses the racers into their seats, a little like a mini Eau Rouge.
It was the young Mexican Aguilera who held the lead, from Bukhantsov with Geshev trying to go around both of them. Hilton appeared hooked to the back of the Number 1 car, but 17 year old Taiwanese driver Jimmy Chou, in his second season with GulfSport was looking menacing behind this group. The racing was extremely intense during that first lap as positions were constantly being challenged but fortunately no contact was made and as they went into lap two things started to settle down a bit. Alim Geshev cleverly moved passed Chou for 5th, with Mughal who was 2nd in championship points table down in 7th, followed by the Emirati Alhameedi, Sorokin, Khazzoum, Strijder, Hadeed, and Karim.
Hilton got past Feyzulin for 3rd place with Chou running in 5th still ahead of Geshev and Mughal. Hadeed then parked his car on the run off at turn 16 with a ‘technical’ which brought out the safety car just 1 minute before the 9 minute pit window was due to open. The mandatory pit stop is 45 seconds, but ‘success penalties’ are designed to throw a spanner in the works as the previous event winner has to wait a further 20 seconds, the 2nd place has 15 additional seconds and the 3rd place man gets 10. In this race that would be Aguilera, Bukhantsov and Geshev respectively.
So as the safety car pulled off the circuit, Aguilera dived straight in for his pit stop followed immediately by Hilton, Feyzulin and Chou thus handing the race lead to Bukhantsov who was being closely followed by Geshev, both of whom came into the pits the next time round handing the lead to Mughal who was the last man in with Alhameedi. After their 45 second stop Mughal and Alhameedi exited the pits to find themselves right behind Amir Feyzulin who was in second place behind new race leader Jimmy Chou.
The longer pit stops resulted in Bukhantsov and Aguilera now having to give chase from 7th and 8th places respectively but with only 16 minutes in which to do it. Jimmy Chou was able to celebrate his first ever race win as he crossed the line followed by Feyzulin and Mughal. Not far behind was Bukhantsov and Aguilera. Feyzulin was given a 10 second penalty for a start line infringement which elevated Mughal to P2 and Bukhantsov to P3.
Round 6 is in just two weeks in Dubai.
