Young British driver, Enaam Ahmed ends his impressive first year of car racing with another piece of silverware and €75,000. The prize was awarded to him after he collected victory in Koiranen GP Junior Winter Challenge.
An intense two weekends of racing around the Iberian Peninsula would see Ahmed lock horns with the Finnish competitor Simo Laaksonen. With his rival taking all three victories in Jerez, it was going to be an uphill struggle for any driver to catch him.
Despite this, Ahmed had picked up three lower podium places, meaning that he wasn’t that far behind going into the final weekend at Portimao. The Brit may have had the advantage of being second in the standings, but would need to out perform Laaksonen if he were to stand a chance of being crowned champion.
Laaksonen has also been competing in Formula 4 this season, appearing in occasional SMP F4 alongside a full season in the French F4 Championship, where he collected one victory on his way to sixth overall.
Ahmed would dominate race one as he made the most of the damp conditions, showing his true pace during practice. Like in a number of winter series, a single retirement could be costly and a collision with Devlin DeFransessco saw Laaksonen lose valuable points in race two. Ahmed would have taken the lead of the series, however a 5 second penalty for ignoring yellow flags saw him drop to second place overall behind Alexander Vartanyan.
The series and the prize eventually came down to the final race as Laaksonen soon barged ahead on fresher tyres but a brave overtake around the outside into turn 10 saw Ahmed make, what would be known as, ‘The €75,000 Move’.
“That was the hardest race of my life!” commented Enaam, “Laaksonens tyres was so much better so I knew I would have to defend hard. Fair play to Simo, he gave me racing room, and it was a very fair fight. I have to say that this money will help so much as budget is tight, so I have to thank Koiranen GP for this opportunity.
“Where else do you win prize money like this? Its awesome! I also have to thank my dad and the guys at Edge management for helping and guiding me to this win.” added Ahmed.
