‘Little Alonso’ catches the eye at Al Ain

Sport360 staff 13:36 11/02/2014
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  • Child’s play: Al Dhaheri on the track.

    Rashid Al Dhaheri continued his impressive season with two victories in the Bambino Class at the UAE Rotax MAX Challenge Championship held at Al Ain Raceway International Kart Circuit.

    In both the Bambino Time Trials, he outpaced his closest rivals by over two seconds on his way to scooping the big prize in the category for the country’s tiniest race drivers.

    His thrilling performance however does not come as a major surprise given the little Emirati has already been creating quite a stir around the local karting community for the past year.

    A loyal Ferrari fan, Dhaheri has been following in the footsteps of the best names in Formula One, travelling to Italy for an intensive training program in junior karting which was the first step for F1 legends such as Ayrton Senna, Michael Schumacher, Fernando Alonso, Sebastian Vettel and many more.

    But Al Dhaheri does not need to step out of the country to get the best of training, with the Yas Marina Circuit and Dubai Autodrome providing some world class tracks.

    The five-year-old is currently being coached by Paul Chatenay who is well known in the UAE karting community as the most experienced international driver, representing the UAE four times at the SWS World Finals.

    Clearly his coaching is paying dividends as his performance in Al Ain came a couple of weeks after an equally dominant display at Dubai Kartdrome, which was the start of his current winning streak.

    Rashid – who drives with a Fernando Alonso replica race suit and helmet – is quickly etching his name on the local racing scene, and raising eyebrows with his impressive performances and rapid development in what is only his first season of racing.

    Driver coach Chatenay said, “The kid is insatiable. He just wants to drive and drive. Rashid’s passion and commitment to the sport is unfathomable and if he continues in this spirit and energy, he will fast establish himself not only on the UAE karting scene, but for sure also on the international stage.”

    Rashid’s father Ali Al Dhaheri said after the Al Ain performance: “I am really pleased with the latest progress in Rashid’s racing. He is making his mark in his first season of racing. At the sixth round [in Al Ain] Rashid produced another set of truly remarkable performances achieving a P1 finish in both races and beating his closest challenger by more than over two seconds.”

    Nicknamed ‘Little Alonso’ Al Dhaheri will be back in action at Abu Dhabi’s Yas Marina Circuit on 28 February.

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