KARTING – Bahrain-based karting sensation Lewis Smith is ready for greater challenges ahead in his young motorsport career, having taken full advantage of “an invaluable experience” in the recently concluded Rotax MAX Challenge Grand Finals (RMCGF) 2023.
Eighteen-year-old Lewis, who hails from the UK but resides in Bahrain with his family, was part of a nine-man Team Bahrain in the global karting meeting, held at Bahrain International Karting Circuit (BIKC) in Sakhir.
The British School of Bahrain student was making national sporting history as the first-ever e-kart entry from the kingdom to compete in the RMCGF, and he impressed all throughout the week.
Lewis showed that he can hold his own against the best in the world, and in his E20 Senior Final on the concluding day of the event, Lewis gained many places from his starting grid position to finish 12th in a heated battle.
“What a wonderful week it has been, full of emotion and so many lessons and memories I can take with me moving forward in my racing career,” said Lewis, who is sponsored by Bahrain Airport Services (BAS) and European Airline Solutions (EAS), expert providers of aviation GSE.
“It was an honour to be able to be a part of Team Bahrain and compete in the grand finals’ E20 Senior class.
“I did my very best and I am pleased with what I was able to accomplish for my status in the Rotax world rankings. My teammates and I definitely showed what the Bahrain motorsport family is made of and that we can compete against anybody in the world, and we are confident we can continue to build on what we did in the RMCGF 2023.
“It was a wonderful time and indeed an invaluable experience, especially being the first from Bahrain to compete in an e-kart class. It motivates me even more to strive harder to reach my dreams in motorsport.”
Lewis kicked off the week’s events placing no lower than seventh on the timesheet in each of the three Non-Qualifying Practices on day one in E20 Senior action. His best lap time of those runs was 55.749 seconds around BIKC’s 1.414-kilometre CIK-FIA track.
Smith maintained his strong pace in the final three Non-Qualifying Practices, before going an impressive fourth in classification in the Qualifying Practice, where he put in an ultra-quick lap 53.560s.
A five-second time penalty then cost him a fourth-place finish in the E20 Senior Qualifying Heat 1, and then had an unlucky outing in Qualifying Heat 2 as he failed to finish due to a malfunction in the e-kart.
On the final two days of the RMCGF, Lewis was unable to race in the Pre-Final, again due to a continuing malfunction issue, which put him on the back of the grid for the Final. But there, he bounced back in style and moved up many places to classify 12th after 10 laps.
“There was a lot that happened this week that I can learn from, and these are the kinds of experiences I need to be able to go on and take the next leap in my racing career, even though it was extremely disappointing having so many malfunction issues with the E20 Kart,” said the talented youngster.
Lewis now has his sights set on challenging for yet another Rotax MAX title when he competes in the 2023-24 Bahrain Rotax MAX Challenge season.
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