Ahmad Al Harthy helped his team overcome a torrid qualifying session to finish in the top ten and score valuable points in the British GT Championship.
The Oman Air Motorbase Porsche 997 GT3R could only manage 20th in qualifying around the Brands Hatch circuit because of a weight penalty. Despite the poor qualifying result, Al Harthy and team-mate Michael Caine managed to work their way through the field and maintain their unbroken run of points finishes, moving to fifth in the championship standings at the end of the weekend.
Al Harthy opened the race for the Motorbase team, moving to the top 15 by lap 10 and then in to the top 10 just 9 laps later. He worked his way up as high as fourth before handing the car over to Caine on lap 35.
Caine continued where Al Harthy left off, but could do nothing to stop his lighter opponents breezing past due to the weight penalty, handed top to the duo due to their relative experience. Caine would ultimately end in seventh place.
“The race was certainly a lot better than qualifying”, said Ahmad, “It was a very challenging race, I couldn’t take any risks and our strategy was to overtake as much as possible without making any contact. I put my head down, reeled them in one by one and I think we had fastest lap at one point. Luckily, we didn’t lose any time with the small fire as it came about close to my pit window. The team did a great job in the pit-stop but then Michael had a very difficult job in his stint, the weight in the car combined with the drivers he was up against made it very tough. To finish P7 is a great result from where we started though.”
