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Current 2007/8 Positions:
Class C
1st Bassam Kronfli - 124
2nd Harvey Boulter - 94
3rd Maurits Knopjes - 91
4th Fahad Al-Musalem - 85
5th Andrew Lemon - 84
6th Omran Al Owais - 83
7th John Stanley - 70
8th Karim Al-Azhari - 66
9th Rami Malhas - 61
10th Roy Viejden - 17
11th Dave Moran - 0
Class B
1st Eric Charles - 43
Class D
1st Phil McGovern – 28
2nd Keverne McShine - 28
Class Inv.
Rafael Unzurrunzaga

Gulf Radical Cup

Rounds 5 & 6 – Dubai 16 & 17th November

Fresh from their successful races in the Kingdom of Bahrain two weeks before, most of the Gulf Radical Cup drivers used their test sessions last Wednesday to acquaint themselves with one of the world’s most demanding venues – the Dubai Autodrome’s 5.4km Grand Prix circuit

This was to be the scene of the FIA GT3 European Championship decider, the debut ‘race’ of the Speedcar Series, the final event in the Formula Campus Renault series, and a showdown for the top Radical drivers in search of the coveted Gulf Radical Cup.

With four different winners from the opening rounds of this extremely fast one-make sports prototype series, it was anybody’s guess who might emerge victorious.

On Thursday, it was Maurits Knopjes (Nivea for Man ARC Motorsport) who emerged with Pole Position after lapping the GP circuit in the timed Qualifying session just sixteen thousandths of a second faster than championship favourite, Bassam Kronfli (EVO Middle East). Knopjes’ time of 2:05.448 represented an average speed of 155 kph through the GP circuit’s 16 demanding corners and two one kilometre straights.

Friday’s fog delayed and shortened race proved to be a real nail biter, as Knopjes tried his level best to keep Kronfli behind him. He succeeded despite Kronfli setting the fastest lap whilst trying to get past. Bahrain’s Fahad Al-Musalem (Team777) was the next fastest driver on track and was going well until a loose plug lead ended his chances of staying with the leading pair. This enabled Omran Al-Owais (Alowais Motorsport) to move to third place whilst being hounded by a more experienced driver, John Stanley (Ardentia Search) and newcomer Harvey Boulter – all drivers racing identical 252 bhp Radical SR3 sports prototypes.

But when the results were declared at the end of the race, the first two drivers were astonished to find they had been Black Flagged and excluded from the race. So it was that Alowais, Stanley and Boulter were promoted by two places and were brought to the podium for the trophies kindly presented by Dubai Autodrome Chairman Saeed Khalfan.

However five hours later, after a series of discussions between the championship coordinators, officials and drivers, the exclusion order was rescinded and replaced with a 21 second ‘drive through’ penalty.

Round 6 of the Gulf Radical Cup got underway with the customary rolling start. Although Knopjes was on pole having won the previous race, it was Kronfli that immediately took the lead and held it until the finish despite the extremely close attentions of Knopjes’ white and blue SR3. As in Race 1, there was a significant gap to third place man Stanley, who finished ahead of Al-Owais, Keverne McShine (GulfSport Racing) in the surprisingly quick Radical PR6 , Harvey Boulter and Andrew Lemon.

Significantly, Knopjes went on to record the Radical’s fastest lap of the weekend, beating the best FIA GT3 lap recorded by a Corvette Z06R that would have cost more than four times as much to buy.

The next two Rounds of the Gulf Radical Cup take place on 7th December where we are promised an even bigger grid from what must be the fastest growing race series in the region.