Fahad Mohammad Bahzad (left), CEO of Qatar Racing Club and Abdul Rahman al-Kharji address a press conference at the Qatar Racing Club yesterday.

By Sports Reporter/Doha

Following the success of the 2014/2015 Qatar Drift Championship, Qatar Racing Club (QRC) has made some exciting changes for the upcoming season and has also increased the number of events.
This year Qatar Racing Club will organise 25 events, that is 7 more than last year. QRC every year organises Qatar Mile - Invitational, Qatar Mile, Qatar Drift Championship, National Street Drag Championship, Ramadan Freestyle Drift and Sealine Sand Drag.
The 2015/2016 season will kick-off on Friday with the first round of the Qatar Drift championship. There will be a total of six rounds, with three of them being held this year and the rest in March and April 2016. Each year the event has seen the number of participants increase both from within and outside Qatar.
Fahad Mohammad Bahzad, CEO of Qatar Racing Club said he was delighted with the response the events have received. “We are creating more events than before. We started off with 12 events per year, in the last two years it was 18. But this year we are organising 25 events. So there is an increase in events each year. Now we are in our limits and don’t want to have more events so that we can maintain our high standards, most importantly safety standards,” said Bahzad, while announcing the calendar at the Qatar Racing Club yesterday.
Giving a break-up of competitors, which has seen a surge each year, Bahzad said: “We have around 160 competitors in drag racing, 50-60 in drift and around 220 in Arabian drag racing league and in 4/4 drifting we have 150 entries. So we have almost 800 entries in five types of races.”
The CEO said the main aim of the QRC is to promote drag racing in Qatar and to create a competitive environment within the pool and provide high level of safety standards. Through the hard work in last few years, the QRC team are now at a high level of professionalism are ready to deal with anything that can happen during the competition, he said.
Bahzad also announced the addition of Pro category this year, to the already existing semi-pro and amateur. And to give a boost to the participants, the first to eighth placed will all receive cash prizes.
“We like to spread the prize money from 1st to 8th place, which nobody does in this region. This is a strategy initiated to gather more people’s interest, make it worth for them to participate and give them more push at least financially. In drifting we have three categories: Pro, semi-pro and amateur and in all three first to eighth get prizes. It’s the same with 12 categories in National Street Drag racing. Plus we have our junior kids from the age group of 10 to 15 years, they also get the prize money,” Bahzad explained.
QRC also announced a formal relationship with Formula Drift, who will bring new competition format, judging technical details to the championship series.
“We plan to move now drifting competition to the next level. In the region drifting has grown substantially and we are excited to announce this agreement between the two parties. With Formula Drift’s expertise, fans and competitors can expect the highest level of competition and excitement,” Bahzad said.
The event will be a free entry for fans and also there will be raffle draw in the final rounds for them to win prizes.