Dubai : It was a fairytale win for Dubai-based US citizen Andre Ramdhanny who powered to victory in race two of the Total UAE Touring Car Championship at Dubai Autodrome in his first ever race day for Team MSW Seat.
In the first race he was runner-up to experienced Khalid Bin Hadher who took victory in the Performance Racing Seat.
In race two Bin Hadher had to start from the back of the grid after a fuse delayed him getting out the pitlane, which gave Ramdhanny the break he needed to power to victory on his debut day.
He said of his accomplishment, "I really did not expect this. I did not expect to get pole position either so this has been a great day and I must thank Team MSW and Jonathan Simmonds who has shown great faith in me. This victory so early on in my racing career is a big confidence boost."
Class 1 victory
In the Total UAE Touring Cars Class 2 Spencer Vanderpal (A2B Garage Honda) snatched a great victory in race one, while newcomer to Class 2 Rupesh Channake (Lap57 Honda) was another rookie to impress by taking Class 1 victory in race two after finishing third in the first race.
It was not plain sailing for the winners, they had to work hard for their trophies, with reigning champion Umair Khan strong in his new work in progress Lap57 Honda finishing second in both races and sending out the message that he intends to hang on to his title.
Jason O'Keefe (A2B Garage Honda) bounced back from a gearbox problem in the first race to take third in race two.
Bahrain's Hussain Al Kooheji and Abdul Aziz Bin Ladin from Saudi Arabia lived up to the hype by taking a win each in the opening day's action of the UAE Sportsbikes 1000 Class.
In the first race Al Kooheji took top honours in the 1000 Class with Bin Ladin taking second place in class on a machine he had never ridden.
In race two it was role reversal with Bin Ladin taking the win and second place going to Al Kooheji.
