Go-kart go
An international go-karting race had unexpected winners. Reem Nafie and Mohamed El-Sayed report from Sharm El-Sheikh
The Ghibli Raceway in Sharm El-Sheikh hosted the fourth Rotax-Max Challenge World Finals last week. The four-day event, one of the most prestigious in go-karting, gathered over 100 racers from 38 countries when it began on 21 January.
The Rotax Max Challenge is the fastest growing go-kart race in the world and has been recognised as an international competition. Not surprising then that Ghibli Raceway was visited by Michael Schumacher, Formula One six-time champion, and his wife. "Shumi", as his friends and fans like to call him, was impressed with the set-up and the system applied in the raceway facility that caters to leisure and professional go-karting. "That's a fast track," the great German said.
Racers gathered around the Rotax officials a day before the race to receive their Rotax engines by random designation. Each racer then assembled his machine from the chassis up and installed the tires to tune up their karts for the qualifying round next day.
The challenge is broken down into two categories, juniors and seniors. The junior racers are those between the ages of 13 and 18. Twenty-one participated this year. On the other hand, the seniors are racers 18 years or older, and are in effect divided into two categories: under and over 35 years of age. Seventy-five raced for the 2003 Rotax-Max title.
The Egyptian team, sponsored by Ghibli and Vodafone, consisted of the Egyptian go-karting champion Shady Osama and his runner-up and Autocross veteran Ahmed Ghanem. Both raced as seniors under-35, in addition to Tony Karem competing with the over-35 racers. Mohamed Abu-Ghazala, 14, competed as a junior on behalf of Egypt. "We decided to sponsor the Egyptians by providing them with karts because we were keen that they participate," Helmi Sofrakis, Libyan owner of Ghibli Raceway, told Al-Ahram Weekly.
Each team weighed their kart -- 160kg was the minimum weight for the seniors and 143kg for the juniors -- filled their tanks and were ready for the practice sessions.
The best recorded lap time went to South African Christiano Morgado with a time of 1:02.60 while Dutch Ricardo Van der Ende had the highest average speed, 75.35 km/h. Young Egyptian Abu-Ghazala came in fourth with a time of 1:07.06. England's sensational young Adam Christodoulou, who has been described as the next Michael Schumacher, came in first at 1:03.40.
"I just love the speed. I know I can do it and win this race," Christodoulou, who has been karting since he was seven, said.
The following day free practice sessions were held in the morning, followed by a qualifying round. British driver Tristam Oman came in first with a 1:03.10 time, followed closely by Australian Adrian Ostazy with a 1:03.60 and South African Bjorn Ross with a 1:04.41. With the end of the second day, it was clear to most spectators that Oman and Christodoulou will be the leading contenders for the championship, especially since Christodoulou was registering times higher than those of many of the seniors.
The race heat sessions took place on the third day to determine the position of the racers on the grid during the pre-final round. Following six heat drives and after calculating the average of every driver, Oman came in first, followed by Ostazy, Morgado and Van der Ende. Both senior Egyptian racers were disqualified from the heats after entering late. Abu- Ghazala, who had been performing well during the practices, came in last place while Christodoulou was in firm position of first place.
Just before the final race, Oman told the Weekly that he was confident he would be able to make it, while Ostazy wasn't bothered by the fact that he was second on the grid. "It doesn't make a difference if you start first or second. It's how you drive," Ostazy said.
As nearly 1,000 Egyptian and foreign spectators gathered on the sidelines to witness racers in the pre-finals and finals, many were in for a surprise. Oman, who had started out in first place on the grid, lost his lead to Morgado. After a mouse-and-cat chase, Oman failed to maintain control and Van der Ende and Ostazy were both able to pass him. In the final lap of 20, Ostazy took the lead, just seconds before Morgado and Van der Ende retained their first and second positions at the race's final turn.
The race's true shocker was in the junior's final when Christodoulou's kart suffered a technical problem just after the start, leaving him nearly a lap behind. This bad luck meant that Christodoulou finished in 13th place -- instead of the much higher anticipated finish.
Spanish Omar Martin, who was second on the grid before the finals, came in first place, followed by Portuguese Bruno Serra who put in a lot of effort to come in second and South African Wiann Swart in third place. Egyptian Abu-Ghazala was waved the blue flag and disqualified after he was lapped halfway through the race.
Australian Mark Wicks came in first place in the over-35 event, followed by New Zealand's Mark Lane and Sean Murphy from Bahrain who finished third.
Following the race, Christodoulou told the Weekly that he was hit by a "stroke of bad luck", and Abu- Ghazala had high hopes he would perform "better next year."
At the press conference that followed, Rotax officials announced that next year's race will be held in the Canary Islands.
Ghibli Raceway has been visited by many star drivers and celebrities, including David Coulthard, British Formula One driver, Gianni Morbidelli, the Italian Formula One pilot for Minardi and test driver for Scuderia Ferrari, and Paul Stewart, son of Formula One legend Sir Jackie Stewart, in addition to Hamad Al- Khalifa, emir of Bahrain, host of next season's Formula One.
Schumacher was applauded by those at the scene. It was pure joy to see Schumacher on the track. He drove the 6.5 hp karts with his group, then moved to the 13 hp. Schumacher drove the Rotax RM1, the new direct drive kart that reaches a speed of over 160 km/h.
"It's a great opportunity for Egypt to host one of the most international and popular motor sport championships in the world and for the world to see how charming Sharm El-Sheikh is," Schumacher said. He added that he admired the fact that the track was surrounded by the beautiful mountains of Sinai as well as the Red Sea.
