Bikawi’s “new” machine was in fact a highly modified derivative of the Depa backed Evo 7 which featured tweaks such as a Dogbox gearbox and a fibre glass body. This proved to be enough for him to take a convincing Overall  win, and victory in the premier 5M Class, by a hefty two seconds over regular UAE Touring Cars front runner Raed Hassan. Bikawi was simply untouchable in the Auto Test segment, while Hassan was the quicker of the two in the Auto Sprint but the combined times swayed the victory to Bikawi. Hassan was in a titanic tussle for the runner-up slot with Hossam Al Ansary and Ra’ad Haddad in the hunt – the trio were separated by half a second in the end with Hassan clinching second place, heading up third placed Ansary and Haddad settling for fourth by the narrowest of margins. Waleed Afani finished fifth making it a clean sweep for Mitsubishi Evo’s in the top five.

Bikawi said of his victory, “I am happy to race my car again. I faced a problems in the Oman Challenge a few weeks ago so I was obliged to change the gearbox. I have fixed a new Dogbox and happy with it, but there is still much to be done to my car especially in the turbo boost area. With this sorted I believe I would be able to win the Sprint Test segment. In the end I would like to thank my sponsor Depa and hope to keep this good relationship with them by scoring the best results possible as I did this weekend.”

Samer Abdel Malak (Mitsubishi Evo 9 GSR) won the 5S Class from Nassib Nassar (Mitsubishi Evo 10), Nasser ran Malak close in the Auto Sprint but the latter got the upper hand in the Auto Test segment to seal Class victory.

In the VM Class it was Aref Ramli (Mustang) who triumphed over the BMW of Alqassim Hamidaddin, the latter beating the Ramli in the Auto Test but succumbing to the pace of the Mustang in the Auto Sprint.

The 4M Class featured the closest battle for top honours with Bashar Mousa (BMW) slugging it out with Basil Daham (Renault). It was Daham who was fastest of the two in the Auto Test forcing Mousa to pull out all the stops in the Auto Sprint to clinch the win, which he did by a mere quarter of a second.

Imad Mrad (Malia Furniture Renault) continued his dominance of the hotly contested 2M Class with a strong win in the Auto Test followed by an even stronger win in the Auto Sprint. Joe Dawaliby, in a similar Renault Clio Williams, was his closest challenger taking an equally emphatic second place – over six seconds quicker than third placed Faisal Omar (Honda EG6). Mrad’s performance earned him fifth place overall, a remarkable feat considering the amount of powerful and nimble cars entered on the day.

“Thank God that every one finished this race safely,” Mrad said and added, “It was another tough competition, and I’m still learning and trying to upgrade my performance step by step. I am happy with my results today helped no doubt by a new set of tyres.”

The reigning UAE Autocross and Middle East Hillclimb Champion Alain Nawfal returned to Red Line competition in the 2S Class driving a Renault Clio but found the pace of Weam Abdo, in a similar Renault, too much and too quick. Abdo won the Class by over a second from Nawfal who had to settle for second place.

Round 7 of the Red Line Challenge Championship takes place 13 March at Dubai Autodrome. Being the penultimate round this promises to be a thriller as the final pieces in the 2008/2009 Championship jigsaw start to fall into place.