Round Two of the Federal Tyres King of Desert Drift Championship has come to an end. Competitors once again fought to earn vital Championship points in front of a capacity crowd.
With the Oman Automobile Association hosting the Championship for the first time on their purpose-made drift arena, it was the perfect location for the first night-time event that the Championship has encountered.
Much like in the first round in Fujairah, the open space allowed for a customised layout. Oman was the perfect place to encourage a high-speed adrenaline-filled layout which would push the drivers’ talents to the limits.
As qualifying got underway, it would be Ahmad Daham in his 950-horsepower S15 who would send the crowd going wild with two perfectly executed qualifying runs scoring 94.94 points and once again ensuring that he would grab the top spot. Second place would go to Lunatics by Nature pilot Khalifa Al Nahyan after another impressive performance in his Rocket-Bunny S14. Series newcomer Tariq AlShaihani would fall narrowly behind Khalifa in his extremely clean freshly updated S13 to clinch third.
As the stands filled with spectators for the second day, it was time for drivers to go head-to-head in the battles.
Undoubtedly the most interesting early battle was to be Round 1 winner, Ahmed Al Ameri up against Sultan Al-Qassimi. With car trouble on qualifying day, Al Ameri would only be able to achieve 23rd place in a safe run on 3 cylinders to ensure he would be able to reach the battles. Sultan would win the first battle 7-3, forcing Al Ameri to go all out in his lead run. Unfortunately, he went too hard, pushing the car into the outer tyres on the extremely fast first corner and handing the win to Al-Qassimi.
Ahmed Daham would once again put on an impressive show which would see him make his way through to the Top 4 where he would come up against Ali Albalushi. Despite winning 7-3 with an impressive lead run, he would suffer a car issue in his chase run leaving Ali Albalushi to win 8-2 to advance to the final.
The next Top 4 battle between Tariq Alshaihani and Sultan Al-Qassimi would see impressive 6-4, 4-6 battles, leaving a tie which would mean that they would enter a one-more-time battle. Sadly Al-Qassimi would then go on to suffer a mechanical failure which would allow Alshaihani to advance to the final in his first King of Desert appearance.
Ahmad Daham and Sultan Al-Qassimi both managed to repair their cars enough to get to the start line for the small final. Daham would take a 7-3 lead in the first run, before Sultan Al-Qassimi would once again suffer car troubles for Daham to once again secure his second King of Desert podium position.
As both cars lined up on the start line for the final, they headed into the first corner where Ali Albalushi would become the final victim of car failure. It would ultimately hand the King of Desert Round 2 title to Tariq Alshaihani as he went on to complete his victory lap in style for the fans.
With some extremely impressive and consistent driving on show once again throughout the event, Ahmad Daham has now taken a well-deserved top spot in the overall rankings. We look forward to heading back to the Middle East for the next round of King of Desert!
Full event photo gallery here: Federal Tyres King of Desert Round 2 - Photo Album
Official event video:
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