Kent: Oman Racing Teams Ahmad Said Al Harthy completed a very tough round 9 and 10 of the Formula Renault BARC championship in the United Kingdom at the Brands Hatch circuit.

Al Harthy started the race weekend on Saturday where he took part in an open test session, completing all the four 25 minutes sessions covering over 70 laps in his Formula Renault.

Round 9 consisted of a qualifying session that took place at 11am on Sunday, where Ahmad managed set a time of 47.341 seconds putting him 16th out of 31 starters just 1.2 seconds away from the pole sitter. After a good start Al Harthy managed to pass 4 cars before being forced to retire from the race due to another racer loosing control of his car and spinning into the path our Omani racer. “After having a good start I managed to pass 4 cars, and into turn 2 of the circuit another car lost control in front of me and unfortunately his car came straight into mine making me unable to avoid him”, mentioned Al Harthy.

With the events of the previous day forgotten Al Harthy was focused for Round 10 witch took place on Monday. Ahmad showed his pace once again qualifying in 11th place out of 31 cars with a best time of 47.013 seconds 0.712 seconds from pole sitter. The race proved to be a difficult one for Al Harthy who lost ground due to 3 red flags that were caused from incidents on the track. That resulted in 3 restarts causing the grid to be shuffled and Ahmad finally finishing in 14th position. “This race weekend was tough, I did my best to forget about race 9 and when I qualified in 11th I was hoping for a good race, the restarts didn’t work out in my favor, 14th position is respectable specially after this weekends pace and how close all the experienced drivers have been running. Brands Hatch is very technical and has seen very interesting races in the past month, and all the action this weekend just proves how demanding this circuit really is”. Remarked Al Harthy.

This weekend saw ORT at its best in terms of putting Oman on the motor sports map, with the team giving out promotional materials and handouts of Oman, hundreds of spectators got the chance to find out more about Oman and its ability to represent in one of the fastest growing sports in the region.

Al Harthy is supported by the Ministry of Tourism, Ministry of Sports Affairs, BankMuscat, Oman Mobile and Ernst & Young for the 2007 Formula Renault (BARC) championship in the UK.

Round 11 is due to take place at the Thruxton race circuit on the 16th of September, more racing details is available at www.ahmadalharthy.com