Formula Regional – Beganovic leaves as a winner, Camara fights his way to the podium

The Swede won Race 1 on his last weekend in the championship that he won last year. Camara fought back to make it to the podium in Race 2.

As planned, Dino Beganovic headed back to Maranello to start preparing for his Formula 3 debut, after taking a win in Race 1, from ninth on the grid, in his final appearance in the Middle East series.

Great start. Dino got a great start once the lights went out, making good use of the slipstream from those ahead of him on the long straight going into turn 2. He decided to go down the inside, which gave him a good line through the corner, which amazingly took him all the way into the lead. The race was red flagged because of a pile-up involving several cars, after which Beganovic managed the lead, keeping his pursuers at bay to the chequered flag.

Ready for a new adventure. Dino collided with another car in the early stages of Race 2 and suffered a broken front wing. Then in the final race, he went from 19th on the grid to fifth at the flag. “I’ve got mixed feeling, because an important part of my career, which went very well, has come to an end,” commented Beganovic. From this last weekend in Formula Regional, I will definitely remember the great start in Race 1, which led to my final win. I’ve got a lot of good memories from this series, but I can’t wait to start the new adventure in Formula 3. From now on, my priority is to concentrate on that.”

Difficult weekend. Rafael Camara did not pick up as many points as he could have done at the Kuwait Motor Town track. The Brazilian saw his chances of a podium finish in Race 1 vanish because of a collision right after the start, which broke the floor and the rear wing. In the time available while the race was red flagged following the incident, which involved several cars, the Mumbai Falcons team managed to repair Camara’s car so that he got back on the grid just moments before the green light. But after a few laps, during which he closed on the points positions, Rafael’s rear suspension failed, ending his race. He started Race 2 from 18th, as the grid is decided on the finishing order of the first race, and then started to charge up the order, which saw him in the points after just three laps. Rafael continued to push all the way to the end to take his first podium in the category. Camara was also aiming for a top three finish in the final race of Round 2, as he had kept a set of new tyres, but on the first lap he was hit and pushed off track by another car, making for a rather disappointing end to the weekend.

Programme. Camara is currently fifth in the classification on 47 points and he doesn’t have to wait long to try and do better, as the third round, at the same Kuwait Motor Town circuit, takes place tomorrow and Wednesday.