25/26 Round 6 - Race Report

The penultimate event of the 2025/26 Gulf ProCar season took place at the Dubai Autodrome over the weekend, with championship honours still to play for.

Inclement weather hindered the build up to Round 6, forcing a cancellation of Friday’s Open Test and Exclusive Test sessions due to flooded areas of the circuit. Despite this, a revised weekend schedule was implemented and Dubai Autodrome staff rallied to clear the water in time for Saturday Morning’s on track activity.

Included in the schedule was the remaining Round 5 Race 2, which was postponed due to regional tensions, making for a busy weekend and an unorthodox two day race weekend for the Gulf ProCar series.

Qualifying

Kieran Hope took his maiden Pole Position in the Gulf ProCar series with an impressive time of 1:58.324 behind the wheel of the Class 5 #83 Volkswagen Mk7 Golf GTI. Nick Wiltshire was unable to contest for Pole honours due to a catastrophic engine failure during the early stages of the qualifying session. As the #45 Class 5 Volkswagen Mk7 Golf GTI ground to a halt, the red flags waved and the session was temporarily suspended to recover Nick’s car. Nick was unharmed and scrambled his team to begin the swap to a backup engine.

After the session resumed, Avik Anwar delivered a strong performance in the #71 Renault Clio Cup Gen5 to achieve a best lap of 2:00.547. Pole position for all 3 races looked to be in the bag for Avik however, a post-qualifying Parc Ferme infringement resulted in a grid penalty for the rescheduled Round 5 Race 2. Rahil Taneja followed in the #9 Renault Clio Cup Gen5, posting a best lap time of 2:01.407, inheriting Pole Position for Round 5 Race 2 after the penalty for Avik. 

Omar Hiasat returned to the Gulf ProCar series after an impressive debut in the opening rounds of the 2024/25 season, trying his hand at Class 4 machinery as he took the reigns of the Dream Racing’s #16 Mini Cooper S. Omar was deprived of the opportunity to build familiarity with the car ahead of the weekend due to the cancellation of Friday track activity, so was forced to learn on the spot as he went into Qualifying. Omar delivered a time of 2:07.530 at the end of the 20 minute session, knowing that there was still more pace on the table.

Rescheduled Round 5 Race

Nick was unable to ready his Volkswagen in time for the rescheduled Round 5 Race 2, electing to take the remainder of the day to prepare for Sunday’s Round 6 Race 1 and 2. Nevertheless, Kieran Hope led the cars away for the first race of the weekend. Kieran made an unfortunate error at the race start, holding the wrong side of the tramline rolling start and earning a drive through penalty as a result. The collateral victim of this was Rahil, who was unable to assume his allocated position at the start, forcing him to hang back slightly and sacrifice the advantage he would have had over Avik. Despite this, Rahil ran a calm and composed opening stage of the race, holding off the attack from Avik up until the mid-way point of the session where Avik made an overtaking move stick. Omar followed the Clios at the start, but did not have the mechanical performance to apply pressure.

Avik and Rahil remained glued together throughout the session, but were cautious of the imminent arrival of Kieran, who was making up time lost in the drive through penalty. Kieran cleared Rahil at turn one with three laps to go, desperate to right his wrongs and claim overall victory. Avik masterfully kept Kieran at bay for as long as he could, but the power advantage of the Volkswagen left Avik with no other option but to concede the overall lead on the final lap. The events of this race made for great viewing and as the chequered flag flew it was Kieran Hope who took first position, Avik Anwar in second, Rahil Taneja in third and Omar Hiasat in fourth.

Round 6 Race 1

Round 6 Race 2 took place early in the morning of Sunday, a welcomed one-off change to the regular Saturday-only scheduling of the Gulf ProCar Series. The tarmac was primed by the beaming morning sunshine as the Werks Motorsport crew rolled the #45 Volkswagen back into the paddock after a successful engine swap. Nick was granted start permission for the remaining races despite not posting a time in qualifying on Saturday, gridded to start both from the back of the grid. Sadly, Kieran was unable to make it to the circuit on Sunday, removing the opportunity for a close Class 5 battle between the Volkswagens. Regardless, the gird was formed and Avik led the field away as the lights extinguished, freed from his post-qualifying penalty. With his higher powered car and a refined race start, Nick had already claimed first place on the long run down to turn one. Rahil loaded the pressure onto to Avik from the moment that the lights went out, with Omar rounding out the field and facing the challenge of the 25 minute race without the aid of power steering, after a failure of this was discovered on his way to the grid.

The Class RC battle between Avik and Rahil was intense, with both cars effectively nose to tail for the entirety of the session. A handful of overtaking attempts from Rahil were unsuccessful as Avik absorbed the pressure and withheld his lead. Nick’s race was interrupted after only a couple of laps, as smoke bellowed from his tailpipes and forced an early pitstop for investigation. Nick later rejoined the race, but the car was unable to perform at 100% with fears from the team that additional parts were damaged from the engine failure on Saturday. Omar ran a very tidy session, quite literally wrestling the car home with the absence of power steering assistance, showing further improvement and comfortability with the car with each lap that he turned. At the chequered flag it was Avik Anwar in first, Rahil Taneja in second, Omar Hiasat in third and Nick Wiltshire in fourth.

Round 6 Race 2

The final race of Round 6 beckoned in the early Sunday afternoon, with an unchanged grid to Race 1. Avik led the field away once again, but received less of a fight from Nick at the start for the overall lead. Avik was shadowed by Rahil in the opening laps, but continued to stay composed to hold his position, extending the gap by the midway point to over a second and a half. Rahil remained focussed and slowly began to reel Avik in with his final push of the weekend. With three laps to go, the gap between Avik and Rahil was back down to under a second, yet Rahil’s strong efforts to snatch the lead were unable to knock Avik off of the top step.

Nick made the sensible call to retire the car at the end of the first lap, accepting that more time was needed to investigate the additional issues the car was experiencing and minimising any further damage to the package. Omar Hiasat provided his best performance of the weekend in Round 6 Race 2, with the power steering issue rectified and feeling the confidence to push the car to the limit. His pace was knocking on the door of the Clios, but just missed the edge needed to hold on to them. Despite the lack of direct competition for Omar, he had a thoroughly enjoyable weekend and it was a pleasure having him back on the Gulf ProCar grid after a year hiatus. As the cars crossed the line it was Avik Anwar that finished first, followed by Rahil Taneja in second and Omar Hiasat in third.

All eyes on Round 7

Attention quickly shift to the final round of the championship in two weeks time, returning to the Dubai Autodrome on April 10th-11th. A thrilling double-points weekend in store, where championships are still up for grabs for many drivers in various classes.