The last round of the 2023/24 Gulf Radical Cup (GRC) took place on the challenging 3.56 km National Circuit at the Dubai Autodrome. Although 25 drivers had taken part this season in what has become the region’s premier sportscar championship, this particular event was particularly important to four drivers who were in with a shout of the title; namely Alex Bukhantsov (TT Racing), Usmaan Mughal (Relentless By GulfSport Racing), Alim Geshev (TT Racing) and Jimmy Chou (TT Racing).
As the teams and drivers arrived at the circuit the points difference between these four was 110 points. However, there was a total of 122 points available due to it being the ‘double points’ weekend. So GRC championship leader and current Asia Le Mans Series Champion Alex Bukhantsov would need to be on his game if he were to secure his second GRC title and the award of a test drive in Spain with Team Virage, one of Europe’s top endurance racing teams. This includes spending the first of two days at the Virage Academy facility in their state of the art simulator, then taking to the track in Valencia the following day in one of their LMP3 cars.
This season saw the launch of a National Class Award which enables the 14 competitors who hold a National level race licence (as distinct from an International Licence) to score points on a separate tally to compete for the award at the end of the season. Not only will the winner be recognised as the GRC National Class Champion, they will also be awarded a funded race event in a Radical SR3 XXR competing in the 2024 Hagerty Radical Cup UK. The leading contenders for this title are Mughal and Geshev separated by only 17 points going into the double points weekend.
Qualification.
Saturday proved to be an unusually hectic Raceday with two quali sessions to decide the grid for both of the 20 minute Sprint Races and the main 45 minute race which would take place under newly installed track lights at the Dubai Autodrome later that evening.
The first quali session resulted in the two points leaders, Bukhantshov and Mughal on the front row of the grid for Sprint Race 1. Based on their second best lap times Jimmy Chou managed to get himself on the front row for Sprint Race 2, demoting Mughal to P3.
The second quali session finished with Bukhantsov claiming the pole position for the Enduro next to Geshev with Mughal and Chou on row two. Brazilian driver Suellio Almeida finished a creditable 5th fastest ahead of the experienced Johnny Khazzoum in P6.
Sprint Race 1
As the race got underway it was Geshev who got the jump and led the pack as they raced through turn 1. Chased close behind by Chou and Mughal.
This season has seen a far more strict application of penalties for drivers, particularly for track limit infringements. Sprint Race 1 was no exception with only two drivers not being shown warning flags.
So as the race drew to a close the 4 drivers were only covered by a few seconds and as a result of repeated infringements three drivers were given a 10 second penalty. Bukhantsov being one of them which moved him down to 4th place in the results. Alim Geshev who was initially given a penalty had it removed after further investigation by the stewards, meaning he took a great win from Chou and Mughal.
Sprint Race 2
As the pack raced away mughal overcooked it going into Turn 1 on the first lap which handicapped his race considerably with a badly flat spotted tyre, worse than that he was later handed a 5 second penalty for not returning to the track correctly as directed by the CoC. Bukhantsov was driving an impeccable race, and was charging away from the field. He had decided to use his second set of tyres early (normally used for the Endurance race), on the basis that he could seal up the series by taking a convincing win in Sprint Race 2. And that he did by on with a 12 second margin over Chou who was being hounded by Geshev. Feyzulin finished 4th ahead of Kazzoum and Monie. Notably this weekend, and making his racing debut was George Harding. Harding was locked in a battle fighting for 8th, making a great last lap moving and securing the place, taking points on his race debut.
This result meant that Alex Bukhantsov was able to retain his GRC Championship title and so was awarded the LMP3 test in Spain with Team Virage.
Endurance Race
Going into the final championship endurance race of the season with its mandatory 45 second pitstop, success penalties would play a major part as Alim Geshev would have to wait an extra 20 seconds before returning to the track as a result of winning the previous endurance race. Championship leader Bukhantsov had to serve an additional 15 seconds whilst Feyzulin and Mughal would have an extra 5 seconds added.
So, while the top spot was secure it was now the Vice Champion spot that was the focus of Mughal, Geshev and Chou.
The pack thundered downhill to Turn 1 with Bukhantsov just ahead and Mughal getting past Geshev with Chou very close behind. On lap 5 Mughal was able to squeeze through a very small gap at turn 9 to take the lead away from Bukhantsov with Chou taking advantage of the chaos to claim P2. With clear air Mughal was able to gap Chou and Bukhantsov and set the fastest lap of the race on lap 8 at 1:24.806 now with a 2.7 second lead over the young driver from Taiwan.
On lap 16 Mughal and Chou dived into the pits handing the lead to Bukhantsov. Although Mughal had an additional 5 second success penalty to serve, he came in 5 seconds ahead of Chou and so was just able to exit the pits ahead. After a couple of laps Bukhantsov made his pitstop and rejoined the race in P5. By lap 20 Chou has closed the gap and was now only 0.7 seconds behind Mughal. Professional sim racing coach Suellio Almeida, in his first race in the GRC was now in the hunt as he rejoined the circuit in P3 after the pitstops, clearly getting familiar with driving a ‘real’ race car, his 1,700 hours of sim race coaching experience proving to be of huge value
On lap 28 Chou stopped in sector 2 with a technical gremlin, handing second place to Brazilian Almeida and with Bukhantsov now back up to P3 after getting past Johnny Khazzoum. At the finish, after 31 hectic laps of Dubai’s most technical circuit Mughal claimed victory 12 seconds ahead of the Almeida who was 11 seconds ahead of Bukhantsov.
Usmaan Mughal won the inaugural National Class Champion title with a fully funded drive at Silverstone in July in the Hagerty Radical Cup.
These awards were presented to the drivers the following evening at GulfSport’s glamorous end of season gathering at the prestigious Volante Tower (volantedubai.com) in the Business District of downtown Dubai where there was an extra special announcement - the Radical World Finals would be hosted by GulfSport at the Yas Marina Grand Prix Circuit in November.
This will enable the ‘local’ drivers to compete against many of the world’s best Radical pilots - very good news indeed!
The main season might be over, but this year sees the introduction on teh GRC SuperPrix. An 85 minute endurance race, with SuperPole taking place on the 20th of April at the Dubai Autodrome.
