THE first-ever Bahrain Motorsport Festival, to be held from Thursday to Saturday, is set to be a massive gathering of top-class racing.
Bahrain International Circuit (BIC), “The Home of Motorsport in the Middle East”, is all geared up to welcome more than 260 drivers from around the world.
They will be competing in four different championships, comprising nine hotly contested races, to be held over three action-packed days at two of the world’s most prestigious race tracks.
More than 80 drivers are competing in the FIA World Endurance Championship’s (WEC) Bapco 6 Hours of Bahrain at BIC, while another 150 in the CIK-FIA World Championship and CIK-FIA World Junior Championship at Bahrain International Karting Circuit (BIKC).
Another 20 will be vying for glory in the Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge Middle East, while the rest will be racing in the MRF Challenge. Both the Porsche GT3 Cup and MRF are acting as support series to the WEC and karting.
Racing action gets underway on Thursday at both BIC and BIKC.
Meanwhile, team members from WEC continued to arrive yesterday along with their karting counterparts, as well as some of the participating karters.
The karting world championships are the only CIK-FIA races this year being organised outside of Europe.
In the world championship, some of the top names to look out for are CIK-FIA European Champion Pedro Hiltbrand (CRG), his two main rivals Tom Joyner (Zanardi) and outgoing champion Karol Basz (Kosmic).
Skills
Experienced drivers such as Ben Hanley (Croc Promotions), Felice Tiene (CRG) and Jordon Lennox-Lamb (Birel ART) are others who will be surely looking forward to showcasing their skills at the top level.
In the junior worlds, amongst those to look out for are Finlay Kenneally (FA Kart), Noah Watt (Tony Kart), Victor Martins (Kosmic) David Vidales Arenjo (Tony Kart), Sami Taoufik (FA Kart), Caio Jetta Collet (Birel ART), Isac Blomqvist (Tony Kart), or Callum Bradshaw (Tony Kart).
Tickets to the Bahrain Motorsport Festival are BD20 apiece for all three days. Children aged 12 and younger can get in for free. Tickets can be bought on bahraingp.com, by calling the BIC Hotline, or at Bahrain City Centre at the BIC stand or at Virgin Megastore.
For more information on the festival, visit BIC’s official website on www.bahraingp.com or call the BIC Hotline on +973-17-450000.