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BAHRAIN SPORT
Gulf Daily News Sunday, 16th November 2014
Email: [email protected]
My dream is to race in F1 says young Sowery
TOBY Sowery
dreams of one
day racing in Formula One and
is committed to realising it sooner
than later.
The 18-year-old Briton is one of
motor sport’s most talented young
drivers. But he knows that no matter how gifted you are, the chances
of anybody making it to the top
flight are not great, but he is determined to fight his way through.
“I’m committed,” Sowery told
the GDN. “I’m committed to racing
as a professional and hopefully
making the most of it.
“At the moment, I’m working
very hard to get to my goal. Hopefully I can succeed in a few years’
time.”
Sowery is currently competing
in the 2014 MRF Challenge and is
the championship leader after the
second of three rounds.
Round two was held at Bahrain
International Circuit in Sakhir
when the MRF Challenge supported the FIA WEC Six Hours of
Bahrain.
Podium
Sowery held on to his championship lead following a pair of podium finishes in the four races here.
He is competing in the MRF
Challenge as part of his winter
racing programme and is hoping to
move on to something bigger once
the new European season starts this
Spring.
“I’m targeting maybe GP3 or
Formula Three, something at a
higher level, where I can continue my move up the motor sport
ladder,” Sowery said. “I have been
speaking to a few teams and we’ll
see what happens.”
While one eye looks towards his
immediate future, the other will
be focused on finishing the job on
hand right now … securing the
title in his debut season in the MRF
Challenge.
“I’ve never been to Chenni but I
look forward to going there for the
final round,” he said.
“This past weekend was not so
good because I struggled a lot with
the set-up, but I do still have my
championship lead,” he said.
“It would be nice to win the MRF
Challenge. It’s been a good experience so far in the championship,
the racing has been quite fair and
it’s been a good series for me this
winter.”
Having raced in Bahrain in
support of the FIA World Endurance Championship, Sowery has
seen that there are alternatives to
Formula One in the world of professional motor sport.
“I didn’t know too much about
the WEC before this weekend but
it looks really nice,” he said. “My
goal is F1 but just to have a career
in racing would be great.”
Sowery thanked Elite Resorts
and Cosmetic Surgery Partners for
their support.
Double joy for
Toyota
n Sowery ... most promising
TOYOTA
Racing had
twice the reason to celebrate
yesterday at a floodlit Bahrain International Circuit
(BIC) after winning the FIA
WEC Six Hours of Bahrain
and also clinching the FIA
World Endurance Drivers’
Championship for Anthony Davidson and Sebastien
Buemi.
The trio of Alexander Wurz,
Stephane Sarrazin and Mike
Conway shone brightest under
the stars after steering their
no. 8 TS040-Hybrid to a fine
race win. They claimed the
chequered flag nearly a minute
ahead of their closest challengers for their maiden triumph of
the season.
Meanwhile, Toyota teammates Davidson and Buemi
secured this year’s drivers’ title
despite only finishing in 11th
place at BIC. They suffered
some car problems during the
first half of the race, but were
still able to secure their season’s crown.
Yesterday’s result in Bahrain
put the Japanese manufacturers
in prime position to seal the
FIA World Endurance Manufacturers’ Championship in the
WEC’s final round in Brazil in
two weeks’ time.
Wu r z - S a r r a z i n - C o n w a y
registered a total of 195 laps
and claimed the chequered
flag with a 50.460-second gap
ahead of the no. 14 919 Hybrid
of Porsche Team’s pole-sitters
Neel Jani, Romain Dumas and
Marc Lieb.
Like Toyota, Porsche had
double the joy as they took the
third podium step with the no.
20 919 Hybrid of Mark Webber, Brendon Hartley and Timo
Bernhard. They were 57.268s
behind the victors.
Davidson and Buemi could
only manage 11th place in the
overall classification with 177
laps after fighting back from
their early car problems involving their car’s alternator.
n LMP1-H class winners on the podium
n The Toyota car of
new world champions
Davidson and Buemi
Pits
That forced them into the pits
for 16 laps or roughly 30 minutes, but they ultimately did
well to crawl their way up the
final order.
Audi Sport Team Joest had
their cars finish in fourth and
fifth, respectively, accounting for all the runners in the
Le Mans Prototype 1-Hybrid
(LMP1-H) class.
Taking first place amongst
the LMP1-Lightweight challengers was Rebellion Racing’s no. 13 R-One Toyota of
Dominik Kraihamer, Andrea
Belicchi and Fabio Leimer.
n Action from the Porsche GT3 Challenge
The LMP2 class win was
claimed by the no. 47 Oreca
03R-Nissan of KCMG pair
Richard Bradley, Matt Howson
and Alexander Imperatori.
Elsewhere, Toyota weren’t
the only team to secure a championship at BIC today as another four titles were decided.
AF Corse and Aston Martin
secured a championship double
for their drivers and teams in
their respective classes.
The no. 51 AF Corse pair
of Gianmaria Bruni and Toni
Vilander steered their Ferrari
F458 Italia to the win in the Le
Mans Grand Touring Endurance (LMGTE) Pro class – a
victory that also helped them
clinch the FIA World Endurance Cup for GT Drivers and
the FIA Endurance Trophy for
LMGTE Pro Teams.
Aston Martin, on the other
hand, sealed their own fantas-
Schmid triumphs
CLEMENS Schmid completed a fantastic double yesterday to
cap the opening round of the 20142015 Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge
Middle East, held as part of the
weekend’s events in the FIA WEC
Six Hours of Bahrain at Bahrain International Circuit (BIC) in Sakhir.
Schmid won the second 12-lap
sprint in 25 minutes and 08.195 seconds. He was 4.458 seconds ahead of
defending champion Zaid Ashkanani
while Charlie Frijns came third,
9.684s behind.
All three drivers were competing
in the championship’s gold category.
tic double after the tandem of
David
Heinemeier-Hansson
and Kristian Poulsen finished
in first place. That ensured
that they clinched both the FIA
Endurance Trophy for GT Am
Drivers and the FIA Endurance
Trophy for LMGTE Am Teams.
The FIA WEC Six Hours of
Bahrain was the seventh and
penultimate round of the 2014
FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC).
Cullen and
Lauda win
MRF races
RYAN Cullen and
Mathias Lauda shared bragging
rights yesterday with a win each
in the second round’s final two
races of the MRF Challenge Formula 2,000 Series.
Cullen claimed the opening
12-lap sprint while Lauda was
the winner of race two.
Cullen won race one in 25:09
minutes. Kyle Mitchell followed
in second place, 4.021s behind,
while championship leader Toby
Sowery was third, 7.005s back.
With the result, Cullen closed
the gap on Sowery in the standings with just one round remaining.
“After getting a five second
lead it was all about controlling
the pace till the end. I am very
happy to win again and close in
on Toby’s championship lead.”
Lauda then went on to win the
weekend’s 12-lap fourth race in
28:24.064. The son of former
three-time Formula One World
Champion Niki Lauda, he finished ahead of Mitchell and Raj
Bharath.
Mitchell finished a mere
0.616s behind, while Bharath
claimed third, 3.411s adrift.
The MRF Challenge 2014
heads to Chennai for the season’s third and final round on
January 24 and 25.
Sowery leads the championship with 141 points with Cullen
second with 126 points. Mitchell
and Bharath are joint third with
112 points with Lauda is on 71
points.
“The whole weekend has not
gone as well as I would have
hoped so to get this win is very
rewarding,” said Lauda.
“I have worked hard all weekend so this is the best possible
way to end it. The car was great
all race and was easy to control
the pace and make sure Mitchell never came close enough to
mount a challenge.”
Taking a second successive win
among Silver class drivers was
Sheikh Hasher Al Maktoum. He led
Bandar Alesayi and Saeed Al Mehairi
to the finish.
Missed
Team Bahrain’s Mohammed Mattar and Raed Raffii missed out on a
podium place in this category.
Stepping onto the podium for the
Bronze class were Wolfgang Tiller,
Mohammed Jawa and Rob Frijns.
The second round of the Porsche
season will take place at Dubai Autodrome on December 5 and 6.
n Action from the MRF Championship race