The champions of the Rotax MAX Challenge Grand Finals (RMCGF) 2023 were honoured over the weekend at the Bahrain International Circuit (BIC), ‘The Home of Motorsport in the Middle East’, in Sakhir.
After a full week of top-class karting action at BIC’s world-class facility, Bahrain International Karting Circuit (BIKC), it all came down to the Finals in each of the nine categories, with plenty of thrilling, wheel-to-wheel action.
The winners included Jenson Chalk from the UK in the 125 Micro MAX category, Rory Armstrong from the UK in the 125 Mini MAX class, Timo Jungling from the UK in the 125 Junior MAX, Andrej Petrovic from Serbia in the 125 Senior MAX, Ragnar Veerus from Estonia in the 125 MAX DD2, Ben Cooper from Canada in the 125 MAX DD2 Masters, Mats Johan Overhoff from Germany in the E20 Senior, Joao Goncalves from Brazil in the E20 Master, and Veeti Salmi from Finland in the E10 category.
Team UK were also winners of the Nations Cup, followed by Team Canada and Team Belgium, while Team USA won the Team Video Contest.
Meanwhile, Team Bahrain’s drivers also made their presence felt, with Luca Houghton placing ninth overall in the Junior MAX Final and Tye Mejia climbing an impressive 13 places in the race to finish 17th. Shaikh Ahmed bin Saqer Al Khalifa was also in the top 10 in his category, ranking eighth in the E10 Final, while Lewis Smith was a strong 12th on the final E20 Senior classification after gaining three positions.
All the winners were presented trophies in the podium ceremonies.
This year’s RMCGF featured a total of 384 drivers from 62 nations who battled all week at the Sakhir karting facility. They covered a total of 16,174 laps for a total distance of 22,870kms.
Chalk was crowned in the Micro MAX category Final after 12 laps, ahead of Denmark’s Andreas Kjellerup, who made his way up from seventh to take second, 0.073 seconds in front of the UK’s Edward Haynes, who completed the podium.
In the Mini MAX, Team UK added another RMCGF win, as Cole Denholm initially crossed the line first, but it would be Armstrong who would win the closest race of the year by just 0.048s. Denholm was deemed to have gained an advantage out on track and received a five-second post-race penalty, ending up sixth. Armstrong was closely followed by Estonia’s Nikita Ljubimov and Jacob Ashcroft, with the trio being separated by a mere 58 thousands-of-a-second after 14 laps.
Jungling put Team UK on the top step of the podium once again, winning an exciting 18-lap Junior MAX Final by 0.486 seconds ahead of Belgium’s Beau Lowette. Pole-sitter Louis Comyn had to settle for third place. Houghton took fourth place but was demoted to ninth after having been found to force another driver off track.
In an exciting 21-lap Senior MAX Final, Serbia took its first win at the RMCGF as Petrovic was declared victor after a captivating race between 35 drivers. Initial race winner Kai Rillaerts was demoted following a five-second penalty. Hungary’s Aron Krepscik finished second, ahead of the UK’s Macauley Bishop.
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