EGKC Wins 5th Dubai Corporate Championship
The Emirates Group Karting Club bagged its 5th Corporate Championship at the Dubai Kartdrome Endurance Championship 2021 after finishing 7th overall and 1st in the Corporate Category at the 24-hour race. Anthony Shanouk, Hugo Frutos de Maeso, Jan Bobert & Sevag Balmanian of Fly EGKC completed the tasks with strong support from friends and family. It was also an honour to share the track and pits with double Formula 1 World Champion Fernando Alonso and former F1 driver Pedro De La Rosa.
The atmosphere in and around the track is always brilliant with familiar faces around, with drivers and support crew flying in from around the GCC and Europe to compete in this prestigious event.
Meanwhile, Team EGKC, who could not take part in this round of proceedings, managed to score enough points throughout the season to bag 3rd place in the Championship.
Read the Track Talk News by Dubai Autodrome here.
EGKC Stays On Top of The Corporate Podium
Oct 30th: Fly EGKC drivers Sevag Balmanian, Hugo de Frutos Maeso, Jan Bobert, and Anthony Shanouk pulled off a dominant performance yet again at the third round of the Dubai Kartdrome Endurance Championship. Jan Bobert drove an impressive qualifying, placing the team third on the grid in front of other experienced drivers. The team stayed in the top five throughout the 12-hour endurance race which started just past noon with summer temperatures still lingering. As soon as the sun set, Fly EGKC was still dominant up front eventual finishing an impressive 4th overall and at the top of the podium of the Corporate category yet again,
Team Emirates drivers, Jiby Kuriakose, Sai Nair, and Porus Noshir representing India in the Nations category couldn’t recover from the poor luck right from the beginning of quali and eventually finished 16th overall and 5th in category.
EGKC Dominates Corporate Category As Dubai Endurance 2021 Kicks Off
May 1st: The EGKC kicked off the Corporate Category defense at the Dubai Kartdrome Endurance Championship with an outstanding display sweeping the top three spots of the class podium. The first round of the championship saw EGKC put up four teams of three drivers in the 7-hour endurance race. 31 teams competed in the long-anticipated event (after two postponements) – 9 in the Nations category and 5 in the Corporate category.
Team Emirates drivers, Jiby Kuriakose, Sai Nair, and Asim Ashraf competed in the Nations category. The team finished 11th overall and fourth in class only 38 seconds behind third place after 318 laps of racing.
Three EGKC teams competed in the Corporate Category.
Fly EGKC drivers, Jan Bobert, Sevag Balmanian and Mohd Zubair finished first in class and an impressive fourth overall.
Team EGKC drivers, Maxime Seurat, Darshane Dayaratne and Anthony Shanouk finished second in class and 16th overall.
EGKC Racing drivers, Rabih Santina, Mohammed Hafiz ‘Sunny’, and new driver Zuhier Zulkifli finished third in class and 18th overall.
The top three overall positions were also well represented with EGKC alumnus who represented Team Emirates in the epic 2019 season. Overall winner EBC Brakes Racing was represented by Ramez Azzam, Dojomoto (2nd place) was represented by Arjun Manjunath and Porsche FANStastic 1 (3rd place) was represented by Romaldo Labrooy.
The next round of the Dubai championship promises to be a new challenge at the brand new circuit run at the main Dubai Autodrome track.
EGKC Back As Dubai Endurance Corporate Champions
Dec 12th: The EGKC is back to the top of the Corporate Category podium after a clean sweep of all four rounds at the Dubai Kartdrome Endurance Championship 2020. The second EGKC team secure 2nd place of the championship making history for the club by picking up the top two Corporate Championship trophies.
Fly Emirates drivers Jan Bobert, Andre Khoury, Sevag Balmanian and Hugo de Frutos Maeso swept clean the top podium step in all four rounds of the championship blowing away all corporate competition.
Fly Emirates 2 drivers Darshane Dayaratne, Anthony Shanouk, Rabih Santina, Leonardo Iaccovazzo and Yahidj Chady finished a strong third on the corporate podium to secure the runner-up position in the Dubai Endurance Corporate Championship
EGKC makes it 3 out of 3 in Dubai Kartdrome Endurance 2020
Oct 17th: Drivers Andre Khoury, Sevag Balmanian, Jan Bobert & Mohd Zubair driving for Fly Emirates made it three out of three for EGKC in the Corporate Category when they beat sister team, Fly Emirates 2 to the top step of the podium after a convincingly consistent display.
In the 12-hour race, Fly Emirates 2 drivers Darshane Dayaratne, Anthony Shanouk, Jiby Kuriakose and Yahidj Chady led most of the Corporate Category, qualifying strong in fourth place overall. An early incident involving driver Andre Khoury did not put a damper on the team as the drivers took turns to put on a masterclass display of cool and consistent driving to catch up and eventually overtake Fly 2.
“It was an electric atmosphere!” says team manager Asim Ashraf. “Every driver pushed hard in every stint – trying to beat their own best times! And when they did, every driver and pit crew – from both teams in the garage and pit wall celebrated. The camaraderie and team spirit was just amazing!”
Endurance resumes. EGKC takes top 2 spots in class at 6H of Dubai Kartdrome
Sept 18th: After a seven month enforced break, endurance racing resumes in the UAE with the 6 Hours of Dubai Kartdrome Endurance Championship. This was round 2 of championship year and Fly Emirates drivers Andre Khoury, Jan Bobert and Sevag Balmanian claimed their first class-win in the Corporate Category, claiming a consecutive win for EGKC in the category. The podium was shared by Fly Emirates 2 drivers Anthony Shanouk and Darshane Dayaratne who brought home second spot in the Corporate Category. Trailing 2 laps behind their sister team, the second EGKC teams were clear from next competitor-in-class by over 13 laps.
Fly Emirates put another exciting battle on final-hour of racing by challenging the top teams, finishing P7 with just 0.9 seconds after the race-licensed driver squad of Brand Racing.
Click here for full race report by Dubai Autodrome Track Talk.
EGKC starts year with 3 podiums at the 400 Laps of Dubai Kartdrome Endurance
Mar 2nd: Team Emirates drivers Asim Ashraf, Jiby Kuriakose and Sai Prakash, had an inspired campaign, going from 16th position on the start grid and climbing up all the way to sixth position at the end, earning the team third-place silverware in Nations Cup and a first-place trophy for topping the Corporate category, ahead of Redline Racing.
Fly Emirates drivers Andre Khoury, Jan Bobert and Sevag Balmanian, sliced through the traffic and gave an all-out exciting last hour performance to grab the third-place trophy for Corporate category with rivals Redline Racing. only 0.3 seconds ahead at the chequered flag.
Fly Emirates 2, a late entry with new drivers Anthony Shanouk and Leonard Iaccovazzo joined experienced Hugo de Frutos Maeso to cross the finish line for the 3 EGKC teams.
EGKC ranked #1 in UAE after 1st place finish
The Emirates Group Karting Club is now ranked number one in the Sodi World Series Ranking for UAE after an emphatic win at the Dubai Kartdrome Endurance Championship Round 4 recently.
Team Captain Arjun Manjunath took Emirates Racing to the chequered flag in the gruelling 24-hour race after teammates Romaldo Labrooy, Ramez Azzam & Tom Bale all worked together to build a 3-lap lead ahead of rivals Bin Drai Racing and Fernando Alonso’s FA Racing.
The win sealed the top spot for the team both in the Dubai Kartdrome Endurance Championship 2019 and the UAE Sodi World Series endurance ranking.
Emirates Racing is also ranked 5th in the world ranking.
In the meantime, Team Emirates could not recover from early setbacks and finished 11th overall to secure second place in the Corporate Category of the Dubai Kartdrome Endurance Championship 2019.
More news HERE
Interview with Team Principal HERE
EGKC takes double overall podium in 700kms Dubai Endurance 2019
The Emirates Group Karting Club finished second and third overall in 700kms endurance to continue leading the Pro and Corporate category of 2019 Dubai Kartdrome Endurance Championship.
Arjun Manjunath, Ramez Azzam and Romaldo Labrooy fought early performance perils for Emirates Racing to valiantly bring home a second overall and second in the Pro category.
Hugo de Frutos Maeso, Jiby Kuriakose and Mohd Zubair charged for Team Emirates to lead the Corporate category crossing the chequered flag and also clinching a third overall podium. A repeat performance in 2 rounds.
EGKC racked up four trophies in Round 3 of Dubai Endurance:
- 1st Place Corporate
- 2nd Place Pro
- 2nd Place Overall
- 3rd Place Overall
EGKC leads double championship (Pro and Corporate category) going in to Round 4 to be held in December 2019 on Monaco layout at Dubai Kartdrome.
EGKC goes two for two at the Dubai Endurance 2019
The Emirates Group Karting Club has won the first two rounds of the 2019 Dubai Kartdrome Endurance Championship.
Round 2 of the Dubai Endurance saw a Sprint Race to determine the starting grid of the 600-lap race. Romaldo Labrooy finished third in the short race to pick up EGKC’s first trophy of the night.
Arjun Manjunath and Mohammed Mattar together with Romaldo then charged for Emirates Racing to lead in the early part of the race. A brief period of safety car saw the EGKC teams react with some early drive-through pit stops. Once the dust was settled with all the 14 mandatory pit stops done, the EGKC pro team emerged 40 seconds ahead of nearest rivals Bin Drai Karting Team. A late push by the rivals cut the lead but Mattar, the final driver for Emirates Racing managed to stay ahead and crossed the line first after 13 hours and 10 minutes to finish first overall and first in the Pro category.
Team Emirates drivers, Jiby Kuriakose, Mohd Zubair and Hugo De Frutos Maeso capped off the amazing night clinching two more trophies – first in the Corporate Category and an impressive third overall, finishing 40 seconds ahead of corporate rivals, LD Russia, bringing the grand total of trophies for the weekend to five.
EGKC wins Round 1 of the Dubai Endurance
The EGKC reached another milestone this weekend when Emirates Racing won the first round of the Dubai Kartdrome Endurance Championship. Emirates Racing was represented by three drivers: Arjun Manjunath, Ramez Azzam and Romaldo Labrooy.
The EGKC sent three teams to the opening round of the popular endurance race. Team Emirates finished fifth overall and second in the Corporate Category and Fly Emirates finished tenth overall and fifth in the Corporate Category.
Team Emirates was represented by Jiby Kuriakose, Mohd Zubair, Max Seurat and Hugo De Frutos Maeso while Fly Emirates were represented by Asim Ashraf, Sai Prakash, Gustavo Ramirez and Muhammad Hafeez (Sunny).
The 12-hour race proved to be extremely challenging as the weather provided an interesting start with rain affecting the combined practice session. The session started dry but the rain started around the 10-minute mark of the session. The rain was sporadic but was enough to keep the track wet. Teams which had set a time in the dry remained in position as the wet track proved slower. The rain stopped in the last 20 minutes and the track finally started to show signs of drying. Teams started to send their fastest drivers out and it proved to be a master class stroke as Ramez Azzam of Emirates Racing picked up pole position and Jiby Kuriakose picked up the 3rd place on the grid for Team Emirates in the dying minutes of the 80-minute combined practice/qualifying session.
At the drop of the UAE flag to signal the 12-hour endurance race, the wind and dust started to pick up. The conditions proved to be relentless and lasted the whole race.
The tailwinds also made the lap times inconsistent but it also helped when Arjun Manjunath picked up the fastest lap of the race of 1:12.284.
Asim Ashraf of Fly Emirates also picked up an impressive 1:12.497 in his final stint in the blustery weather.
When the chequered flag dropped after the gruelling 12-hour race, Emirates Racing came up top; securing the Grand Slam of Pole Position, Fastest Lap and the Win.
Click here of the full report from Dubai Kartdrome.
Click here to view more photos.
EGKC picks up seven trophies at the Dubai Endurance final round
The three teams representing the EGKC at the 4th round of the Dubai Endurance Kartdrome Championship 2018 produced a scintillating performance in the final round to grab a total of seven trophies.
Ramez Azzam, driving for Emirates Pro, opened the weekend with a third-place finish in the sprint race to pick up the EGKC’s first trophy and to start the 24-hour race in the third spot.
The gruelling race saw many family members and friends, both regular and new, come up to the track to give amazing support to the drivers on track.
When the dust settled at noon on Saturday 15th of December, the three teams of EGKC, stood proudly on the podium.
Emirates Pro had picked up 2nd place in the race to pick up two trophies – overall 2nd and Pro category 2nd. The team also picked up the third place trophy for the 2018 championship.
Team Emirates, which needed to finish first in the Corporate category to seal the championship, did just that. By finishing first, Team Emirates edged LD Russia by a mere 3 points to win the Corporate championship for the third consecutive time.
Fly Emirates, which finished 5th in the Corporate category in this race picked up enough points to finish 3rd in the 2018 championship.
The haul list:
Emirates Pro – Sprint Race 3rd place, Overall 2nd place, Pro 2nd place, 2018 Championship 3rd place.
Team Emirates – 1st place Corporate category, Champion 2018 Corporate Championship
Fly Emirates – 3rd place 2018 Corporate Championship.
Drivers:
Emirates Pro: Arjun Manjunath, Mohammed Mattar, Tom Bale, Ramez Azzam & Rami Azzam (and Tom Soubiron from previous rounds)
Team Emirates: Jiby Kuriakose, Mohd Zubair, Dany Hokayem & John Barsi (and Maxime Seurat from previous rounds)
Fly Emirates: Asim Arshaf, Sai Prakash, Hugo De Frutos Maeso, Gustavo Ramirez & Redza Jamil (and Ashar Tareen, Keith Janaway and Dany Hokayem from previous rounds)
Team Managers: Nabil Jamil & Julien Roudil.
Other pit crew: Marie Deocampo, Miwa Yoshida, Ashar Tareen, Maxime Cimino, Darshane, Alex, Jean-Claude, Sevag, Fulvio and many others!
READ THE DUBAI AUTODROME (TRACKTALK) REPORT RACE REPORT HERE
EGKC scores three podiums at the 2018 opening endurance race
Team Emirates scored the highest ever finish at the Dubai Kartdrome Endurance Championship when the team finished in 3rd place overall in the 12-hour 1st Round.
After an early setback, Emirates Pro, finished 23 seconds behind in P4.
Fly Emirates, also scored the highest finish by the sister team in P9 overall (P4 Corporate).
Team Emirates also finished in first place in the Corporate Category.
Team Emirates drivers:
Jiby Kuriakose
John Barsi
Mohd Zubair
Emirates Pro drivers:
Tom Soubiron
Arjun Manjunath
Fabio Paoleschi
Fly Emirates drivers:
Dany Hokayem
Sai Nair
Asim Ashraf
Thanks to the support of:
Rabih Santina
Nabil Jamil
Miwa Yoshida
Marie Karmina Deocampo
Murray Cluley
Maxime Seurat
Jean-Claude Dahler
Ashar Tareen
and many more!
Race report by Dubai Autodrome here.
Team Emirates crowned Corporate Champion at the 2017 Dubai Kartdrome Endurance Championship
Dubai (16 Dec 2017)
The Emirates Group Karting Club picked up it’s second championship in the Corporate Category of the 2017 Dubai Kartdrome Endurance Championship recently. Four colleagues, driving for Team Emirates, won the fourth round in the category and in turn, picked up the 2nd championship success in a row for the club.
After winning two out of the three rounds, Team Emirates went into the fourth round leading in the championship points but only a finish ahead of closest rivals, CG Racing, would ensure victory in the Corporate category.
“The team pulled it off magnificently,” said team manager Dany Hokayem.
“After some setbacks in the early stages of the race, the drivers kept their heads together and put in consistently quick lap times.”
After completing 1123 laps in the 24-hour race, Team Emirates accomplished their mission to finish top in the Corporate category (12th overall) to cling the second championship for EGKC.
The drivers of Team Emirates are Dany Hokayem, Jiby Kuriakose, Mohd Zubair Hossain, Sai Prakash and in the earlier rounds, John Barsi.
Sister team, Fly Emirates finished 22nd overall and fifth in the Corporate category. Fly Emirates, which fielded a few inexperienced and developing drivers, also achieved their goal of picking up on experience in the tough world of endurance racing.
The drivers for Fly Emirates for this round was Hugo de Frutos Maeso, Asim Ashraf, Rabih Santina, Ashar Tareen & Maxime Seurat.
“We are looking to add on a few new drivers for the endurance team in 2018,” says Team Principal Redza Jamil.
“We need a bigger pool of fast and consistent drivers to increase our competitiveness.”
If you like to be part of the team, please email egkc@emirates.com
Full race report by TrackTalk here
Team Emirates wins the Amateur Category of the Jesolo Eurocup 2017
Jesolo (17 Sept 2017) – The Emirates Group Karting Club (EGKC) ended their summer break with a victory in the Amateur Category at the Jesolo Eurocup 24-hour endurance race in Italy on the 17th of September. 7 amateur drivers took to the track to drive for Team Emirates to finish 22nd overall from a grid of 35 karts. After the 5-month summer break, the team travelled to Kartdromo Pista Azzurra Jesolo, near Venice, Italy with a target of clinching some silverware ahead of the opening race of the 8th season of the EGKC next month.
“We qualified very well, even ahead of some professional teams,” said Rabih Santina, team manager of the team in this race. “Rain threatened the event throughout the night but it never came. We had prepared the strongest drivers for the night stints just in case it rains. But it never did.”
In the gruelling 24-hour race, Team Emirates took a comfortable early 2-lap lead in the 6-team amateur category but the closest rival, a team from the Czech Republic, slowly gained back some speed. The race ended with Team Emirates finishing just over a minute of the rivals.
Team Emirates
Manager – Rabih Santina
Drivers – Tom Soubiron, Jiby Kuriakose, Rabih Santina, Asim Ashraf, Luca Lucchesi, Fulvio Parrilli and Redza Jamil
Special thanks to Miwa Yoshida, Ashita John, Papa Lucchesi, Mirko Lucchesi and Christophe Soubiron for your tireless support.
The Emirates Group Karting Club started off as a group of petrol-heads who got together for some endurance racing at the Nivea For Men 24-hour Endurance Challenge in 2009.
The team finished second in the corporate category in the grueling 24-hour race, much more than the team had actually expected before the race started.
After this iconic event, the team decided that a more structured club would be beneficial (and fun!) to everyone involved. And so, the Emirates Group Karting Club was born and the first race of the championship on Friday, 28th January 2011 was run.
Beyond the club championship, the cub continued with the endurance races. Together with the club’s loyal sponsor, PANASONIC, the club took part in the endurance races in Dubai and in the following years, overseas as well.
In May 2013, Team Emirates went to iconic Le Mans to take part in the ’24 Heures Open Kart’ at the Circuit Karting Alain Prost. Every year since then, the EGKC has taken part part in various races overseas concentrating on the Sodi World Series Endurance Cup.
In 2016, Team Emirates ranked 2nd in the UAE and the Dubai Autodrome, and 140 in the SWS world ranking.
In 2016, Team Emirates’ sister team, Fly Emirates, made history by winning the Corporate Category of the Dubai Kartdrome Endurance Championship. The team had come agonizingly close in 2015 by finishing only 30 seconds behind the eventual winner but after four rounds in 2016, the team redeemed itself and polished off the award convincingly.
The endurance team is mainly open to Emirates Group staff and family only.
The EGKC 