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It’s not often one finds a $120,000 Mosler on-track with a SEAT Leon. Granted this past weekend, there wasn’t much dicing between the pair. But seeing them line up side-by-side for round five in Abu Dhabi will remain one of the oddest sights of this season’s UAE Touring Car Championship.
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Wildly depleted grid numbers have threatened the UAE GT Championship’s stability this season. Though the show must go on, sometimes delaying the curtain is necessary. And so it was that the traditional one hour endurance race was dropped, and the three remaining GT cars shared the grid for both UAE TCC sprint races on the Yas Marina Circuit: that meant a 19-car field with an unprecedented five different classes.
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As was to be expected, Leon Price in the Ferrari 458 GT3 and Rafael Unzurrunzaga in the Mosler GT600 locked out the front row for race one, with John Iossifidis just behind in the Aston Martin Vantage GT4. The weekend was not a happy one for the Gulf Team, however. Worsening oversteer meant John Iossifidis could do no better than fourth – last in class – while gearbox-related maladies that had plagued the Aston since its Dubai 24Hr appearance hit hard in race two, Martin Baerschmidt pitting four times during the twenty minute sprint. Fifteenth overall and nine laps down was a poor return for the team’s efforts.
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Things didn’t start off particularly well for AUH Motorsports either. Despite securing pole position, fears that the Ferrari 458 GT3’s gearbox would seize whilst waiting for the field to grid up prompted the decision to start at the back. This, plus a clean start and no mistakes, gave the Blue Jumeirah Team-prepared Mosler victory on a plate. Race two proved a much closer affair though. Starting from the back once again, a scarlet-suited Rob Barff was already up six positions by the first corner. With a myriad of SEATs, Hondas and Suzukis jumping out his way, Barff soon took the fight to Unzurrunzaga. On the straights the Mosler reigned supreme, but the Ferrari proved more nimble around Yas Marina’s technical corners, and soon Barff had outbraked his way into the lead. Victory and a 42s-winning margin cemented an incredible race for AUH Motorsports.
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In the TCC’s top class, the combatants were inseparable during the afternoon. Costas Papantonis continued his race-winning pace by taking victory in the opening bout, his 20s-winning margin aided by reigning-Class 1 Champion Nader Zahour and Ramzi Moutran squabbling lap after lap for second place. Only a spin by Zuhour on the penultimate lap while chasing the Duel Racing prepared-SEAT Leon stopped the fight going down to the wire.
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Keen to make up for his error, Zahour leapt past class polesitter Papantonis early on in the second race, but was unable to build a gap. The pair’s tussling brought Moutran back onto their tails, and the lead continued to swap among the trio. A close call into the final high-speed hairpin finally gave Zuhour breathing room, and the UAE-national started to pull away from Papantronis, the Grecian’s momentum spent. Zuhour duly took victory to maintain his championship lead, while Moutran – unable to catch the Gulf Petrochem-liveried SEAT ahead – took the final step of the podium.
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Competition in Class Two proved less action-packed, however, with Umair Khan dominating proceedings in the Honda Integra. The reigning-Champion’s title defense was dealt a further helping hand by the absence of nearest rival, Aslam Moola. Rupesh Channaka cemented a Lap57 1-2 in both races, just ahead of GNSS Racing’s Jonathan Mullan. In the Clio Cup, Nabil Moutran secured two easy victories for Duel Racing ahead of brother Sami. Ramzi Moutran’s drive in the Class One marked the first time the brothers have competed against each other in the TCC in three different cars. Competition for Suzuki Swift honours was as tight as ever, with Bashar Mardini taking a double victory narrowly ahead of Mohammed El Shimy in race one and Maurice Faber in race two.
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The UAE Touring Car Championship has seen its fair share of highs and lows since its inauguration. It may be a while before aisling grid numbers are on the rise, but close competition is all that needed to take the fight for championship honours to the wire. Shame the same cannot be said for the GTs.
Source – Darren Rycroft
