VIVA Racing Team drivers Tarek Elgammal and Raed Raffii aim to finish the season on a high after a challenging round for both drivers in Bahrain.

Despite making significant steps forward, both cars suffered from reliability issues and were unable to match the pace of rival Batelco team driver Alban Varutti who won both races.

Prior to the previous round, only 11 points seperated the top 6 drivers in the championship, however with Varutti’s double win and most challengers problems, he has now extended his lead to a comfortable 30 points from Alba team driver Faisal Raffi with Elgammal 3rd in the championship and 31 points off the lead.

Elgammal said, “It was a very difficult weekend for us as a team, however I would like to thank everyone in the team for the huge effort they have put in. We will keep pushing hard until the end. Congratulations to Alban and his team for an almost perfect weekend. Hopefully the VIVA Racing Team will come back stronger at the next round and Raed and I can be up there on the podium together. We are a small team and we are doing the best we can with what we have. Raed and I are determined to come back stronger and finish off this season on a high. I have been in this position before in the 2009-10 season where I came back from nowhere after a load of mechanical failures and nearly won the championship. On that occassion I lost it by two points but it just goes to show that you should never give up!”

The next round will be held at the Bahrain International Circuit on the 30th and 31st March 2012.

Jonathon Simmonds, Phil Quaife and Tarek Elgammal have ended a successful season, winning the UAE GTB Championship for 2010/2011 in the Motorsport Wheels / Alex Renner Motors Porsche GT3 Cup car.

Simmonds and Elgammal collected the trophy on the teams behalf at the Night of Champions held at the Courtyard Marriott on the evening of Thursday 21st April 2011.

Despite several setbacks during the season, including a back injury for Elgammal which put him out of racing for over 6 weeks, the team led by Alex Renner fought all the way to the end against the mighty Callaway Corvette of Yuri Skulla and Mohammed Al Muttawa.

Simmonds was delighted with the teams achievements and thanked all of the team during a highly emotional speech at the awards ceremony.

“This is very much a team sport as evidenced this season. Tarek and Phil helped immensely in getting me up to speed and I can’t thank them enough for all their hard work this season. Of course, alot of the credit has to go to Alex Renner & his team of engineers & mechanics who gave us a great car every weekend” said Simmonds.

After a disrupted season due to injury, Elgammal was also full of praise for his team. “I have to thank Jon for the opportunity, I thoroughly enjoyed driving with him. To all the guys from Alex Renner Motors and Motorsport Wheels and Phil Quaife, you proved you are the best in the business & we could not have acchieved without you. A great team, it has been an absolute pleasure.