Dubai: Hussain Umid Ali ended Saeed Al Mehairi’s winning streak in the Senior Cup at the Sodi World Series (SWS) Sprint Races even as Juergen Schmitz claimed his first Masters triumph, while Omar Aswat accomplished a similar feat in the Juniors at the Dubai Kartdrome late on Monday.
Ali needed a mere 0.007 seconds to topple the dominant run of Al Mehairi with a qualifying lap of 1:12.652, pipping his opponent’s top time of 1:12.659 and take pole position. Starting from pole, Ali then powered to victory a clear 1.261 seconds ahead of Rami Azzam, who managed to jump from fourth position and leave Al Mehairi in third.
Al Mehairi stormed back in the second race, wrestling the lead from a pack of seven karts, and sailing home for victory. Abigail Birch did well to jump from fourth to second with an inside cut of two karts on the final turn to finish 2.070 seconds behind Al Mehairi. Azzam and Ali both lost track position, while locked in battle, but Ali managed to make the best of the scuffle by salvaging third place.
When the points of the two races were totalled, Al Mehairi and Ali were level on 73 points each, but the qualifying results were enough to hand Ali the top spot on the podium.
In the Masters category, for SWS Senior drivers 35 years or older, Juergen Schmitz managed his first category victory over Heiki Eelma in second place and Nader Zuhour in third.
Omar Aswat claimed his first SWS Junior Cup win with a total of 76 points leaving Kyle Kumaran in second with 70 points, while Patrick Debattista with 69 points had to settle for third.
