Tribute to Champions !!

We are The Champions, my frieeeennndd!!! 

Champions OMD Racing

Yessss indeed readers!!! 

This past weekend (22-23 Oct '10), OMD Racing has won 1st place !!!! in the 24hr Karting Challenge - Round 2 at the Dubai Autodrome... in the Corporate racers leg..the race within the race!!!

A brief background on this whole thing… the Dubai Autodrome holds yearly 3 rounds of 24hr Karting Endurance Challenges, where both professional racers and corporate teams, ordinary auto enthusiasts and adrenaline junkies, posing as Clark Kent(s) during their day job, and passionate auto racers on the weekends :D 

Round one was held in March of this year, and our team ranked 2^nd after battling a series of misfortunes!! Well, in 24 hours of racing, you are bound to misfortunes! Of all sorts and shapes..

Well this 2^nd round, we knocked everyone else off the grid (corporate wise ;) ) Yup, we brought home the gold…

OMD Racing is a powerhouse fueled by determined racing enthusiasts!! Meet the team:

Thomas "Tom" El-Khoury - our Team Captain

Ziad "SignorZ" Jammal - our resident Hulk!

Saleh "TheGhazal" Ghazal - The poser of the team! And damn good at it too!

Maher "Il Ghazal" Ghazal - The Speedy Gonzales!

Firas "Kikous" Ghazal - The Screaming push we all love with his "GHADDAAAAABBBB" (arabic for anger, as motivation)

Saleh "Wolf" Agha - The fierce predator!!

Antoine "ASD" Challita - The restless attacker!! 

Mustafa "Moe" El Khatib - The Smiley face!

Ali "AA" Awada - The Wacko!! (moi!!)

Rawad "Insomniac"El Khoury - The priceless pit crew member!

and last but not least of all 

Hisham "The Boss" Abi Nassif - The master of ceremony, the graceful Pit Manager!! Hats off – RESPECT AND LOVE!!

With an early start, we all gather up at 8 am on friday, attend the teams briefing session, driver weighing session, registration and random picking of the kart numbers  - 20 was our calling card... we head onto our pit, set up the table, the comms for driver-pit contact, the pit board, the Mac with the trusty excel sheet, racing gear and the essential sleeping tent!! 

Practice goes well, car aint that perfect, but we decide to test it out on the qualification run, hmmpppfff barely satisfied, we come off 14th on the grid..

Safety car rolls the karts out, ready, set, GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

With a thunderous rolling start, we pick up the pace and position ourselves into 10 positions after the first coupla hours, where we decide to change karts after realizing the deficiency in power output of ours.

With that done, the hours start piling up, drivers rotating (each driver is allowed a stint of 60 mins max, no back to back), night settles and track conditions change. Desert humidity peaks its ugly side in, and the track becomes slippery for the karts!!  we push through the night, resting our fast drivers with their intermittent sleeping breaks to keep those energy and concentration levels in check...

15 hours into the race, and voila, last round's bad luck decides to hang around :s

power output of the car decreases

kart's front axis misaligned

tremendous understeer on left cornering

wheel bearing starts grinding to the suspension arm

wheel almost pops out!!!

Change of kart is mandatory to keep our lead for the last 5 hours!!! 

With a monstrous battle for the lead without competition, overlapping them by 5 laps, the misfortune reduced it to a mere lead of 1 lap and 45 seconds into the final laps!!!! 

Thankfully, our determination, concentration, the never endless adrenaline pouring out of us more than sweat, and our biggest asset, our chief strategist's tactics, The Boss's eagle eye strategies pushed us through to crush the competition, lead the corporate teams in the race and achieve a well deserved and earned W I N !!! 

OMD Racing would like to thank the organisers of the race, the race directors, the race marshals, the race mechanics and most importantly their supporting fans and groupies!!! 

special thanks go to Dani, Rami, Lina, Reem, Marc, Faisal, Wael, Elie, Lana,  Sally, Ban, Dima, Anna, Lama, Sirine, Soulaf and Cirine!!

Sorry if we forgot anyone else, rest assure we are forever thankful !! 

Come cheer us on at the next round on December 10-11 2010!! 

Follow the racers on Twitter

@wousil - Tom

@zjammal - SignorZ

@TheGhazal - TheGhazal

@Hippo_crit - Il Ghazal

@firasghazal - Kikous

@tfehh - ASD

@SalehAgha - Wolf

@Alexi13 - AA

@Hisham75 - The Boss

@Rawadkh - Insomniac