Tribune News Network
Doha
The Qatar Racing Club’s fourth and penultimate round of the Qatar Drift Championship, held under the generous sponsorship of club’s chairman His Excellency Sheikh Khalid bin Hamad Al Thani, saw close and exciting contests from a range of elite drifters.:
The start was last Wednesday with the opening of the track to the drivers for free tests a day before the round began, to assess their cars’ readiness and give them the best adjustment standards for this round’s track. The first day, as usual, was dedicated to qualifying trials, held over two sessions, and in the end, Kuwaiti racer Salem Al Sarraf managed to take the lead, leaving second place to the overall leader, Omani Ahmed Al Amri. Following them were Riyadh Al Mabsali and Mohammed Khourshid in third and fourth places, respectively. With the results, Al Sarraf has narrowed the gap with Al Amri to two points in the overall championship standings.
As for the qualifying trials in the local category, Abdullah Jawad Abdullah managed to take the first place, narrowing the gap with the championship leader Ali Al Jabsheh, who came in second, while the third place went to Saud Al Atiya and the fourth to Aladdin Zareef.
Overall, the trials resulted in the qualification of the top sixteen drivers for the knockout rounds, which began the next day. The results of the first round of knockouts saw the qualification of Salem Al Sarraf, Saud Al Atiya, Mohammed Khourshid, and Mubarak Al Dousari from the first half of the bracket, while Ahmed Al Amri, Mesier Abu Shiba, Khalid Al Shafei, and Ali Jabsheh qualified from the other half.
The second round began with a heavyweight surprise as Qatari Saud Al Atiya defeated Kuwaiti Salem Al Sarraf, the leader in qualifying trials, who needed to progress in this round as he competed for the championship’s overall lead but settled for this result. Similarly, Kuwaiti Mohammed Khourshid managed to defeat Qatari racer Mubarak Al Dousari in the second face-off of this round, reaching the semi-finals for the first time in this championship, while on the other side of the matchups, there were no surprises as Omani Ahmed Al Amri defeated Kuwaiti Mesier Abu Shiba, and Jordanian Ali Jabsheh secured his spot in the semi-finals by defeating his Qatari teammate Khalid Al Shafei, who faced issues preventing him from participating.
The first semi-final brought together Saud Al Atiya and Mohammed Khourshid, with Al Atiya winning to reach the final for the first time in the championship, where he would face last season’s champion and current leaderboard topper Ahmed Al Amri, who reached the final after issues prevented Ali Jabsheh from facing him in the semi-final match. Both Al Amri and Al Atiya are vying for their first championship title, which went to Al Atiya this time, making him the second competitor this year to combine both the overall and local category titles after his compatriot Abdullah Jawad Abdullah achieved that in the second round of the championship.
Al Amri, similar to the previous round, settled for second place after a mechanical issue prevented him from completing the match. Thus, he becomes the only competitor this season who has not missed the podium in all four rounds of the championship. As for the third place in this round, it went to Kuwaiti Mohammed Khourshid due to the inability to hold the match with Ali Jabsheh. This signifies Al Atiya’s first-place win in the local category, while the second spot on that podium went to Ali Jabseh, and the last spot went to Qatari Mubarak Al Dousari, who finished third.
At the end of the competitions, HE Sheikh Jabor bin Khalid Al Thani, General Manager of Qatar Racing Club, crowned the top three winners on the podium. Additionally, the winners of the top three positions in the local category were also crowned, amid a distinguished audience presence.
The fifth and final round is scheduled for Thursday and Friday (April 4 and 5).
