Oman's first Formula racer breaks records in first season

2 Podium finishes for Al-Harthy in final round

Muscat: Oman Racing Teams first formula racer Ahmad Said Al-Harthy made Oman proud by finishing 2nd in the championship title race in his first ever professional formula championship which took place this weekend at the Bahrain International Circuit, home of the Bahrain Formula 1 Grand Prix.

Al-Harthy who is sponsored by BankMuscat, BankMuscat International & Oman Mobile has been taking part in the Thunder Arabia Middle East series from April of this year.

The final round consisted of 3 races which were race 12, 13 & 14 of the championship. Ahmad went into the final round trailing the championship leader Mohamed Al A'ali (Bahrain) by 9 points.
Friday hosted race 12 which saw both Al-Harthy and Al A'ali not finish for different technical reasons. Fridays results added excitement to the TAME series giving a chance for more drivers to win or get the runner up spot for this unique and prestigious Middle East Formula Championship.

Saturday witnessed all the drivers head onto the track for the qualifying round which determined the grid for race 13 of the championship. Our Omani driver showed his true speed by achieving an all personal best time of 1m:12.792s, that time was too good to beat by any of the other drivers which saw Ahmad on pole position.

The lights went out for race 13 which saw Al-Harthy take a cautious approach knowing that if he can play safe he would still have a chance to battle it out with Al A'ali in the final race. The race finished with Al A'ali, Al Harthy and Ghanem taking the top 3 positions.

The final race saw the usual reverse grid format in which Al-Harthy's 2nd place allowed him to start in 5th position on the grid. Ahmad maximized on his great start and managed to gradually overtake his competitors which once again showed his true speed in the final race. The final race results were 1-Mohamed Hamdy (Eygpt), 2-Abdulaziz Al Ya''eesh (Saudi Arabia) 3-Ahmad Al-Harthy (Oman). Mohamed Al-A'ali managed to finish in 6th place making the overall standing too difficult for the drivers to calculate due to the rules of the championship which see all the drivers worst 4 results being dropped.

The final championship results were later revealed at the end of season party, Ahmad just missed out from the championship title by only 4 points, nevertheless its defiantly a great achievement for a sport that has generated allot of interest in the Middle East and Oman, “I went into the final round knowing that I still had a chance to win the championship, but I also knew that 2nd spot was still up for grabs, I had to take a cautious approach for the final round. To finish twice on the podium in front of my sponsors, family and friends in Bahrain was an amazing feeling, I am proud to have been given the chance to represent Oman”, mentioned Al-Harthy when asked to sum up on the weekends results.

Representatives from BankMuscat, BankMuscat International and Oman Mobile were all present for the final round, and gave their full support and encouragement to Oman’s new formula racer.