After a long break it was time to get back racing again with the Gulf Radical Cup, this time it was to be at Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi. Unfortunately Abu Dhabi still has some very tight immigration restrictions, so it’s meant a slightly diminished grid for this race.
Having said that Guy Lambert will be making his racing debut in his GulfSport prepared SR3. Guy has spent a year doing track days and finally made the step up to racing. Also visiting for a one-off race was John Corbett and James Winslow sharing a drive also with GulfSport Racing.
After two days of testing, Friday comes around and it's time for qualifying 1 and 2. Fifteen minutes each session for every driver to put together the best lap they have in them. All on new tyres, it was Alex Khateeb posting a very fast 2:15.213, some 1.9 seconds ahead of series leader Ian Roberts in second and Tarik Kerbouci in third. Unfortunately for Khateeb and Sweetnam (who had put in a great fourth place time) they were spotted by race control crossing the pit exit line, this presents a safety issue and they were both penalised by a three place grid penalty. Pushing them to fourth and seventh respectively, giving the Pole to Ian Roberts.
In Q2 it was Khateeb again putting in a great lap, but this time the gap was smaller to the rest of the field. It was James Winslow in the car for Q2 and he was only 0.129 behind Khateeb, also impressively in his first season and first time at Yas, Tarik Kerbouci was hanging on to the other vastly experienced drivers just 0.799 behind Winslow.
So, later that day it was time for Race 1. Ian Roberts took a great start as did Kerbouci to his right. But flying from further back was Kuwaiti Ahmed Al Shehab, he dived up the inside of Roberts in an effort to take the lead, but he was just short of making the pass. Unfortunately he clipped the rear corner of Roberts spinning him around, also collecting Sweetnam at the same time. With Winslow and Kerbouci having to slow to take avoiding action this allowed Khateeb to sail past on the outside to take the lead. Al Shehab, Roberts and Sweetnam all limped around the track to the pits for checks with their teams. It was a disaster for Sweetnam who had sustained significant front bodywork damage and retired, whereas Roberts and Al Shehab only had light damage and were able to rejoin the race, albeit a lap down. After the race Al Shehab was given a penalty to start race 2 from the pitlane as a result of his contact with Roberts.
This left Khateeb in the lead followed by Kerbouci and Corbett. As the pit stops came around all three lead drivers took to the pits, it was Kerbouci in first, but stalling on the way back out allowed Khateeb to retain the lead. Corbett was out the car and Winslow was in, incredibly Kerbouci, in his fluro yellow SR3 XX Ellington Properties sponsored car was flying after the pit stops and was able to maintain a small gap behind to multiple championship winning driver Winslow. All the time Khateeb was keeping pace and managing a nice lead. As the race drew to a close on the last lap Winslow was able to pass Kerbouci for second.
Guy Lambert was on for an amazing 4th place in his debut race, but was given a drive through penalty for a pit window infringement, pushing him back to 5th, leaving Marcus Bamberg to take 4th place.
Race two took place the following day and it was again Khateeb on pole, but it was Winslow that had the holeshot and took the lead into turn 1 from Roberts, then Khateeb and Kerbouci. Roberts who was looking strong as Khateeb tried to pull out a gap, however with a poor result from yesterday Roberts had no pit penalty so was hoping to stay up front and propel himself to the lead after the pit stops. As the pit window opened all the cars dived in, with Khateeb on the maximum 15 seconds added, Winslow on 10 seconds added and Kerbouci on 5 seconds added. But this was the last of the Yas Marina circuit Winslow and indeed his co-driver would see, as the car was retired with a suspension failure.
So, it was indeed Roberts emerging in the lead, now all he needed to do was get his head down and drive to the finish. Roberts has shown strong consistency over the years and was able to keep Khateeb behind him right to the flag, and Kerbouci taking another impressive 3rd place. Roberts drove a faultless 45 mins, certainly making up for Race 1. Kerbouci, who had never driven at Yas Marina and was also extremely happy with his weekends work to take home two podium places, and to have been on track racing against very experienced drivers around him. However it was Khateeb who put himself back at the front of the series standings, with Roberts second and Kerbouci third.
It will be a few days until the drivers and teams will be back at it at the Dubai Autodrome on the 29th of January for round 7 and 8.
