KARACHI, May 31: Shamyl Khuhro, the race wizard, continued his great form in round four of the Xtreme Autocross Championship when he sizzled on the tarmac to record the fastest lap of the day in just 51.84 seconds in his stylish twin turbo RX-8.

Shamyl, who had so enthralled the Karachiites in round 3 early this month by outpacing champion drivers like Nadir Magsi and Asad Khuhro, once again displayed his unquestioned mastery on the wheels in front of a packed house to clinch the A-prepared category race.

Round 4 was held at the Fountain Parking lot, Clifton, Karachi once again on a challenging track designed by Mansoor Halim who is the race director for this season at Xtreme Motorsports.

Mansoor held the drivers briefing at 8:30pm after which the Xtreme Autocross Championship 2012 round 4 was flagged off.

Fizza Anvarali, who is fast becoming a favourite for the ladies category, was once again in excellent form, driving her Honda City to perfection and finishing the race at the top.

Ammara was not far behind and finished second while Natasha Iqbal ended up third. The race was followed by the Novice category which was won by Sardar Hassan Sadiq, driving Toyota MRS, followed by Shamrez Farhatain and Sanaan Jamali.

The D-stock category saw Amir Ali Shah once again driving as a man possessed, totally focusing on the championship despite making a late entry. Amir was absolutely fabulous in his shimmering Mercedes and was class apart on the night as he led the category from the first run till the fifth.

The battle for the second and third spot in D-stock was very intense but Uzair Habib edged past Faraz Sherwani by one tenth of a second to once take the second place. Faraz, driving his Honda Accord, took the third position. Uzair Habib leads this category with 28 points.

The C-Stock category saw back to back wins by smooth rider Ayub Khuhro. By the virtue of this win Ayub has opened up the competition in the C-Stock championship. Ghazanfar Agha took the second place and but leads this category with 34 points.

The B-Stock category, which was dominated by Asif Imam in the early rounds, has now been scooped up by the talented Jam Kamal who has lapped up some valuable points in the recent rounds.

And true to his recent form, Jam in his lucky new RX-8 drove with incredible control to take the category from Asif who again had to settle for the second place while Murtaza took the third place. Asif Imam, however, leads this category with 34 points.

The A-Stock category’s crowd favourite EVO9, driven by Omer Soomroo again proved to be too strong for Sufian Zahid’s EVO8. Omer seems to be getting better with this car and has improved on handling the power of EVO9 more comfortably. Sufian, though, still leads this category with 31 points followed very closely by Omer Soomroo on 30 points.

In the C-Prepared category, the stage was all set for a head on battle between Saleem Tabani and Imam Ali Shah, both driving Honda Civic.

But Imam’s choice of going for an automatic edition proved too costly as he could not even make it to the podium.

Saleem Tabani, driving brilliantly, was miles ahead of his rivals where there was a surprise performance given by the veteran philanthropist Sarfaraz Dhanji driving his Honda Beat. The young Khawaja Shayan took the third place. With this victory Saleem Tabani is comfortably leading this category and is on 27 points.

As for the B-Prepared category, it was a close, intense competition with top three podium winners riding the same 55-second bracket with micro seconds separating them. Zaheer's luck favoured him in the end and he took the first place, closely followed by Samir Feroze and Mukesh Chawla. Zaheer now leads this category with 32 points.

The A-Prepared category, which by all standards the heavyweight category of this championship, saw a fierce battle between ace driver Shamyl Khuhro and dashing Asad.

Brilliant Shamyl was on attack from the word go and kept putting pressure on Asad by posting the fastest times of the day. Asad, an expert driver of superb skills, came very close in his fourth run but was still short by half a second than Shamyl's and had to settle for the second place.

Ahsan Rasheed, who has been improving in his Prepared EVO8 with every round and was within striking distance of the top drivers during the race, took the third place. The Championship battle has now swung in Shamyl's favor with his 34 points and Asad on 32 points.

The fifth round of Xtreme Autocross Championship 2012 is scheduled for September 1, 2012 while its website can be consulted for the results and points table. —Agencies