The Qatar Racing Club signs off another season of drag racing with the Street Drag Festival in Doha.
Hard to believe that it’s been over a week since The Chase at the Dubai Autodrome marked the end of the UAE motorsport season. This past weekend, competitors were feeling much the same way as the Qatar Racing Club Street Drag Festival signed off what had been proven a stellar year of competition and epic burnouts in the region.
Throughout the 2012/2013 season, the Qatar Racing Club has continued its efforts to promote drag racing on a global level, though ‘street legal’ has proven the key watch words as of late. Indeed, though big and small block engines alike with internal modifications were allowed to compete in Doha, 1200hp was about the limit (albeit with commercially available nitrous oxide on standby). Still, across all four categories, this was hardly going to quell the plumes of tyre smoke.
Saudi driver Omar Al-Zahrani took the spoils in the eight-cylinder category with his Chevrolet Corvette, nailing a reaction time three-tenths faster than Mohamed Al-Sugairat to take the spoils. It proved closer between Ali Kafoud and Hamad Al-Mansour in the six-cyliner category, Kafoud just getting the edge in the Nissan GT-R.
Talal Shershani came home victorious ahead of Eid Al-Ajmi in the bikes aboard the Suzuki Hayabusa, while Mahmoud Al-Hashemi completed a successful weekend for the Qataris by making it three out of four in the four-cylinder class in the Mitsubishi Evo IX.
You’d be forgiven for thinking that, as the tyre smoke settled, the Qatar Racing Club was preparing for a long, cruel summer of inactivity. Far from it. Indeed, should you be in Doha over the next few weekends, you’ll no doubt find the team preparing for the upcoming drift events too.
– Shots courtesy of Ranoush QTR. More images available at the Qatar Racing Club.
