Taking advantage of the open goal, Faber got the hammer down, time spent with AUH Motorsports race instructors clearly well spent. Impressed by his rivals’ newfound speed, Tarek Elgammal nevertheless got the hammer down in an effort to repeat his teammate’s faultless drive a day earlier (when he had run as high as second at one stage en-route to class victory).
Elgammal would eventually throw a late-braking manouerve at the #8 machine on lap six, and from there on didn’t look back. Faber would still cement a good weekend with second place ahead of Amro Al Hammad in the #69 car, who emulated Aschan Abdul Malek’s performance in race one by taking third.
Unbeknownst to the lead SR3 duo, the gap to the #21 SR8 ahead was dropping. Charlie Kemp and Richard Sykes had not enjoyed the easiest of weekends. Fourth place in race one had put some solid points on the board, true, but a recalcitrant gearbox had seen them pull off-track shortly after the chequered flag.
Unable to select second gear and lapping several seconds off the pace of the top three, fingernails in the #21 pit garage were being bitten to the bone.
Luck though would turn their way, in the shape of a timed penalty for third-placed runners Al Thani and Jordon Grogor in the #1 car. As the field swept past on their warm-up lap before the race got underway, Al Thani had remained motionless, unable to get the car moving. He would eventually retake his second-row grid slot but would incur a 30-second time penalty as a result.
Kronfli was long gone in second-place but on a day when technical failure could so easily have punished them, eventual third-placed finishers Kemp and Sykes had been given a reprieve.
Few could touch Jones up front though. One David against a lot of Goliaths, as both the regular SR8 and SR3 runners had ably proven.
– Shots courtesy of AUH Motorsports
