The UAE’s much-awaited national racing season began last month at the Dubai Autodrome in a hive of activity, with attention centralling on the new GT Championship. From qualifying to the end of the 45-minute race, last year’s touring car champion Karim Al-Azhari seemed to put on a similarly dominant performance with his Callaway-built Corvette Z06R, leading from the first lap to the last. Behind him was the Khaleeji Motorsport Porsche GT3 Cup of Cabell Fisher and Tarek Elgammal, who, despite not catching the ‘Vette, held the same gap throughout the race. Joining them to complete the podium were Khaled Al Qubaisi and Michael Seifart in their GT3 Cup. Further down the grid, the gap increased. The podium finishers were separated by eight seconds, but the remaining two Alex Renner Motors Porsches and Dodge Viper that made up the GTA Class were a lap down. It isn’t usual for a Viper to come last in a GT race, but this was largely down to a broken differential and this round being the first race its drivers had entered the car in.

In GTB, Harris Irfan took the class win in his 996 GT3, with the real battle happening between Steve Adams in his Porsche 944 and Martin Hope in the Ginetta G50HC – a car that was unpacked and unveiled only a few days prior to the race. The two exchanged positions several times throughout the race, with Hope managing to get the better of Adams by a quarter of a second. Unfortunately, the GulfSport-run G50 failed a post-race ride height scrutineering test.

The first two races of the Touring Car championship ended up in similar vain to the GTs. The two monster Seat Supercopas couldn’t be touched in either races, as they battled each other for the top spot. After 15 laps, it was Khalid Al Mutawaa who pulled ahead from the DXB car by 8sec in the first race and 11sec in the second. The more interesting battles were going on in the mid-field though, where the Civic Type R of Spencer Vander Pal, BMW 330Ci of Mohammed El Arishy and Clio Cup of Nader Zahour ran in close contention.

We then had the GulfSport Radical Cup. The AUH Racing Team, fresh from their recent SR3 class triumph in the Radical European Masters Series (with our own Bassam at the wheel) replicated their winning form. Christophe Hissette had a close scrap with Jordan Grogor, who ended up less then a second behind at the chequered flag. However, in the second race, it was the reverse, and this time the field was more closely bunched together. Bassam, trying to put engine problems from the first race behind him, fought his way from the back of the grid to third.

There’s more to come in the second round of the championship on November 13.