Saeed al-Sulaiti and Abdulla al-Qubaisi will carry their rivalry to Qatar Online Racing Championship, as the two face off in the virtual championship for the bikes on MotoGP 19 PS4, starting from today.
The event, organised by the Qatar Motor and Motorcycle Federation (QMMF), will run for two weeks, with the first week set to see qualifying competitions in two groups, followed by six best riders from each group battling it out for the title in the final week.
Al-Sulaiti is a three-time Qatar Superstock champion, but al-Qubaisi had the better of his close friend this season as he won his maiden title. In total 21 riders have signed up for the championship, including four from Kuwait.
The races will be held on Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. In today’s race to be held at virtual Laguna Seca circuit, Group A will have 10 riders, with the race beginning at 10pm, followed by 11-rider Group B taking the track from 11.30pm onwards. Top six riders from each group will make it to the final week of racing. 
The virtual series for cars received an overwhelming response, which prompted QMMF to hold one for the bike racing enthusiasts. The race format will consist of qualifying for 15 minutes, followed by the race for 30 mins. A race director will observe the race from spectator mode and will be able to scroll through all the different camera angles for each rider. Race tracks and bikes will be chosen from those which were used during the 2019 MotoGP season. One circuit from the 19 that were raced on will be chosen for every race, while bikes can be selected from any of last season’s six teams.


List of participants 
 Abdulla al-Abassi; Alexander Qabazard (Kuwait); Ali Ahmed (Kuwait); Ali al-Ansari; Antoine Baaklini; Hadi Ahmed; Hamad al-Sahouti; Hamad al-Sulaiti; Jassim al-Thani; Jeremy Parola ; Joshua Ilano; Khaled al-Thani; Khalid al-Maraghi; Martin Robinson; Mohamed al-Eidi (Kuwait); Mohamed al-Zaidan (Kuwait); Saad al-Harqan; Saeed al-Sulaiti; Soud al-Thani; Yacob Azadi