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Cool, calm and careful driving helped Racing Falcons soar to victory in a nail-biting, gruelling 24-hour karting extravaganza in Bahrain.
A total of 20 teams competed in the Karting Endurance Championship over the weekend at the Bahrain International Karting Circuit (BIKC) in Sakhir.
Squads representing the kingdom, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Turkey and France were all vying for the title as well as a coveted grand prize, a place in the 24 Hours of Paris race.
Thanks to their impressive win, the Racing Falcons secured the place in the world-renowned international karting event to be held in Racing Kart de Cormeilles in May.
The Racing Falcon’s five-man team featured captain Anup Surendran and Tamim Anwar, 29, along with guest drivers Fabio Paoleschi, 45, Romano Franssen, 20, and Kevin Caprasse, 21. They narrowly beat out their closest challengers Batelco Racing and Dubai 5 Racing, who came in second and third places, respectively.
Both Batelco Racing and Dubai 5 Racing finished one lap short of the Falcons who registered a total of 1,120 laps. Aside from the overall win, the Racing Falcons captured the competition’s Pro-category title.
Surendran said: “It was a very tight competition. I would say the key point that led our victory was strategy.
“It was clean … by that I mean quick and penalty-free. The other teams were as quick as us, if not quicker at times, but what really hurt them was getting penalised for things such as rash driving.”
Now the Racing Falcons are ready to spread their wings and compete against the best-of-the-best in France.
Surendran said: “The team is excited to go to France as it will be our first experience outside the Middle East.
“It is a great opportunity to learn from the best around the world and to get a better understanding of foreign racing techniques.”
The squad is raring to go and aims to practice hard for the upcoming opportunity as well as working on their racing strategy.
The Racing Falcons started in July 2011 as an all-Asian racing team to encourage youngsters to take up the sport and were featured exclusively in GulfWeekly.
Last year, they took second place in the Endurance Sodi Word Series ranking in Bahrain, behind the Batelco racing team. They also received the Newbie Trophy at the 12-Hours Endurance Championship held in Dubai for being the ‘best new team’.
The team is sponsored by Delta Construction Company, 4 Spots, Al Tawfeek, Trass Group and Sahar Restaurant.
For details, visit www.racingfalcons.com or email anup@racingfalcons.com
