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Abu Dhabi’s Qubaisi Ready for the Challenge

Seated together, there was some good banter going around between them. But going down to the pits after that, it was down to serious business for these men.

They are royalty but there was no princely airs about them. Saudi Arabia’s Prince Abdulaziz Al Faisal and cousin Prince Khalid Al Faisal were just Abdulaziz Al Faisal and Khalid Al Faisal once they slipped into their racing overalls. And the passion for motorsport was unmistakable once they were on track. People like Prince Abdulaziz Al Faisal, Prince Khalid and our very own Khalid Al Qubaisi from Abu Dhabi are the faces of racing in the Middle East.

The three would be in action in the Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge Middle East, an exciting new one-make motor racing series which attracts some of the region’s most promising young drivers, this weekend.

The racing series will be run alongside the Chevrolet Supercar Middle East Championship and the GP2 Asia Series.

The Porsche racing series makes its UAE debut at Abu Dhabi’s Yas Marina Circuit. Prince Abdulaziz Al Faisal leads the championship with a 14-point cushion over cousin and teammate Prince Khalid.

“We want to make this series grow and we will ensure that it will happen in the Middle East and Africa. We want to promote local talent. That is our vision,” Walter Lechner, who is part of Lechner Racing, which organises and manages the series on behalf of Porsche Middle East and Africa, said on Thursday. Lechner has also managed many Porsche racing teams.

The 12-round series got going at the Bahrain International Circuit in December with Prince Abdulaziz and his cousin and teammate Prince Khalid Al Faisal, both getting off to a flying start, with one race win and one second place each. The series made history when it made its debut in Saudi Arabia last month, the first ever international circuit racing event ever to be run in Saudi Arabia last month. Prince Abdulaziz made it a memorable one by scoring back-to-back wins in rounds three and four to open up a 14-point championship lead.

“It is not going to be easy here,” Prince Abdulaziz said on Thursday.

Designed to identify top Arab and local-based talent in the Middle East and become a platform for entry into the world of international GT and sports car racing, the Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge Middle East, sponsored by Michelin and Mobil 1. is a new regional version of the GT3 Cup one-make series already running with huge success in Brazil, New Zealand and the US.

It will be a sort of a homecoming for Bahrain’s Shaikh Salman bin Rashid Al Khalifa. Shaikh Salman went down in history as the first ever race winner at the Yas Marina Circuit last November in the Supercars Middle East Championship.

Prince Khalid also won a round of the same series which was supporting the first Formula One Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

“The sand storms on Thursday made it a wee bit tough for the drivers and Prince Khalid reckoned it would be interesting if it remained so over the weekend. “It definitely will make it very entertaining,” Prince Khalid said.

No one will be more eager to give a good account of himself this weekend than Khaled Al Qubaisi, who will be racing in his backyard.

james@khaleejtimes.com