On top of that, razoon-more than racing was one of only three teams fielding a Kuwaiti driver for CREVENTIC’s final round of 2022, namely newly-crowned Ligier European JS2 R champion, Haytham Qarajouli. True, the Hankook 12H KUWAIT marked the youngster’s first-ever 12-hour race, but his local circuit knowledge would surely prove invaluable. 

“It was really cool, because Haytham is really fast,” razoon team boss Dominik explains to CREVENTIC, looking back on the event. “He knew the track, and also, with Khaled [Al Mudhaf, 24H SERIES alumnus and Haytham’s uncle], we got a lot of support from the local side. So, altogether, it was a great start for us. 

“Actually, Haytham wanted to join us for the [2023 Hankook] 24H DUBAI as well, but we’d already sold all the seats. Hopefully this season, he can run all three Middle East races with us.”

Therein lies the subtly different approach razoon – more than racing took to the inaugural Hankook 12H KUWAIT compared with its contemporaries: while many of the 21-car grid were signing off of a long ‘Continents’ title chase at KMT – that ‘end of term’ atmosphere that can so easily lead to chaos – razoon was instead looking ahead towards a three-round, Middle East Trophy championship fight to come. 

“We’d participated earlier that year in the [Hankook] 24H DUBAI, and that really inspired us to do the full Middle East Trophy. We were excited, because it was something special. The same reason why we’ll run [the ME Trophy] this season too. 

“To be honest, we could have run more races during the Summer, but our whole racing team, as well as our event agency, has grown quite fast over the last two, three years. So we already run a lot of other series during the summer months. To add the 24H SERIES’ [European] rounds as well would have been a bit too much. We would love to do it, but the day only has 24 hours for all of us!”

Perhaps unsurprisingly, 18-year-old Haytham was out of the blocks quickly at KMT, his 1m 56.535s in Free Practice a full three seconds quicker than the Vortex could manage (a gap he later doubled by going even quicker during Qualifying). Combined with a 1m 56.288s for team owner Dominik and a 1m 57.244s for long-time teammate Daniel Drexel during their respective sessions, the GTX-entered razoon qualified a sensational 4th overall in Kuwait, ahead even of ARC Bratislava’s Lamborghini Huracan GT3!

“All in all, I liked Kuwait. It’s a brilliant track, especially for our car. To be honest, it suited our car really well, so that did help our drivers get used to the layout quite quickly.”

Taking the shine of their qualifying heroics somewhat, on race day, razoon landed a three-place grid penalty and was shuffled back to 7th: “there was some… BoP issue, let’s put it like this!” a surreptitiously smiling Daniel Drexel explained to radiolemans.com’s Nick Daman on the grid. Despite the hurdle though, the #714 KTM was still a red-hot favourite for GTX class honours in Kuwait, and, with a bit of luck, a potential dark horse for an overall podium too?

“It might have been possible, but you need to perform perfectly without any issues. That means perfect runs from all drivers. To be honest, against a GT3 team with a good driver line-up, if they perform well, there is a gap [in performance] between the GTX and GT3 classes. So, it might have been possible, but it would have been difficult and we would have needed quite a bit of luck. But, for sure, those tracks in the Middle East Trophy are where we have been closest to pole position in terms of sheer pace.”

Indeed, the KTM’s demonstrative pace was on show early when Dominik got off to a blinding start the following afternoon: having gained a place at the rolling start, the team boss was already jostling for 5th overall with the 992 class leaders as the field headed into the second lap. 

Towards the end of his first stint however, Haytham Qarajouli got a scare when the KTM’s five-cylinder Audi engine ignited at turn 19, forcing the young Kuwaiti to abandon the X-BOW at pit entry. Just like that, just over four hours in, a five-lap lead was gone, and more than two hours were lost as both the engine and gearbox were replaced. 

Were all that not enough, just eight laps into his second stint later that evening, Qarajouli was back in the pits when the now-scorched KTM lost its alternator as well.

Tempting though it undoubtedly was, Dominik and his team decided against throwing in the proverbial oil-soaked towel, and after another bout of repairs, got the X-BOW back out for the final hour. Hard work Qarajouli dutifully rewarded with a fastest lap three seconds quicker than either of razoon’s rivals. 

“It’s just part of our philosophy and our DNA: we never give up. If we could change an engine and run for half an hour, we will change the engine and run half an hour! That’s the spirit of our team, and how I would like to have it. Luckily, I have such a great team, and they are crazy enough to go through hell to do all these things! 

“Also, this is a business: if I came to Kuwait and I’d paid for a ride package, I would hope the team would run their ass off so that I can get as much track time as I can. That they would do everything they could to get the car back on-track. So, I understand this from a driver’s perspective and also as a team manager, what we stand for.”

Razoon would eventually spend three hours and 55 minutes of those uninterrupted 12 hours in the garage, and by the time Qarajouli came through to collect the chequered flag, the KTM was an irretrievable 81 laps behind GTX leader, Leipert Motorsport.