SAKHIR, Bahrain, 25 November 2006 — Jason Bright won the first of three V8 Supercar Championship Series races that comprised inaugural Desert 400, the penultimate leg in the 13-race calendar, at the Bahrain International Circuit yesterday.
On a hectic day that began with the Bartercard Gulf Radical Cup race at 8:30 a.m., Bright of Ford Performance Racing overcame a stiff challenge from Holden rival Garth Tander in the closing laps to become first winner during the debut in the Middle East of the fastest and hardest touring car series in the world.
The final two races to determine the 12th round winner today will cap the thrilling three-day high-speed racing action that once again underlined Bahrain’s reputation as the bedrock of motorsport in the region. In the Championship Series, leader Rick Kelly of Holden Racing Team padded his lead by 17 points to 90 over Team Betta Electrical’s Craig Lowndes by finishing fourth in yesterday’s race compared to the ninth-place showing by Lowndes.
Meantime, Bahraini race driver Muhammad Al-Ali claimed the first position in the Thunder Arabia Lumina CSV Championship Middle East qualifying round followed by Saudi Fahd Al-Harby in second place, while the Saudi teenage girl Amal Abdullah was the next to the last to finish the grueling race. BIC General Manager Martin Whitaker said that the support given by General Motors was immense not only in this race but in various other races and in the Lumina CSV Middle East and it shows “their keenness to introduce different motor race events.”
Whitaker said the numbers (of the spectators) here may not be comparable to that of Australia because of a variety of reasons, chief of which is that the race is novel in Bahrain as well as the Middle East region. Only 5000 tickets have been sold out until yesterday, which given the circumstances is quite excellent, he said.
Tony Cockrin, chief organizer of the V8 Supercars Australia, said “This is a great challenge for us organizers of the event both as a sport and promotion. We hope to make a strong entry to the region with this tournament.”
Bright and Tander were the runaway leaders in the race. Holden Racing Team’s Todd Kelly checked in a distant third followed by Tander’s teammate Kelly. Jeld Wen Racing’s James Courtney finished fifth. “He was catching while he was behind and part of that was because I was making a few mistakes,” Bright said of the neck-and-neck with Tander.
