Dubai: A large field turned up to the penultimate round of the 2008/2009 Red Line Challenge at Dubai Autodrome on Friday. Fadi Bikawi showed his class by scorching to victory in the premier 5M Class while Imad Mrad, Weam Abdo, Bashar Mousa, Samer Abdul Malak and Aref Ramli scored wins in their respective classes.
Bikawi driving his impressive 1000 Dunes/Depa Mitsubishi Evo outclassed his Class 5M rivals to take a strong win in the Autotest segment and drove home his advantage in the Autosprint segment winning by an impressive 2.5 seconds.
Bikawi was the first driver to win three times this season and take home four trophies in one event. After taking the lead in the Class 5M title fight he said: "What a race & I am very happy to win today. I was 100% sure that my car can score the fastest laps on the Autosprint challenge, but [there are] still a few things to do in order to prepare my car for the upcoming Middle East Hill Climb championship ...".
Samer Abdul Malak (Renault) managed to fend off Jean Loup (Nissan) and Mazin Al Shibani (Mitsubishi) respectively to take the laurels in Class 5S in what was one of the tighter contests of the day.
Bashar Mousa (BMW) notched up wins in the Autotest and Autosprint to take a comfortable win in Class 4M over second placed Basil Daham (Renault) and Yousuf Al Herais (BMW)
Imad Mrad (Malia Furnitures Renault) was again in dominant form taking Class 2M victory by a massive 5 seconds from second placed Samer Khadra (BMW) and Peter De Vido (BMW).
In Class 2S Waem Abdo (Toyota) and Mustafa Al Khatib (Renault) slugged it out for top honours with Khatib winning the Autotest and Abdo securing the Autosprint segment by a big enough margin to take victory. Khatib was runner-up and Mustapha Ajineh (Renault) in a distant third.
Aref Ramli (Mustang) continued his winning ways in his muscle car to take maximum points in Class VM after a tough duel with arch rival Alaa Al Akawi in a similar machine.
