DUBAI: Rod ‘Papa’ Scott snatched victory from the jaws of defeat, riding home with the Superstock title in a thriller that saw him just-about win both the races in the final round at Dubai Autodrome this evening.

At 49 ‘Papa’ gave his young rival and defending champion Abdulaziz Bakr Bin Laden literally a run for his money in the decider round, beginning one position behind the young Saudi in race one and taking pole for the second race.

In the first race of the day Aziz failed to capitalize on the pole position he had secured following his win in the qualifying race and conceded the lead to Rod, despite registering the fastest lap on lap three.

Rod rode hard and consistently until he let the Saudi rider overtake him on lap eight. From thereon Aziz looked unstoppable, beating his own fastest lap on lap ten and looked headed for certain victory when he suddenly went off track on the final lap.

‘Papa’ seized the opportunity by swiftly overtaking the defending champion and crossing the chequered flag in a time of 20 minutes to Aziz’s 20 minutes 19 seconds. In the process, Rod picked up 25 precious points to move ahead of Aziz, who secured 20 plus two bonus points for pole and fastest lap, by a mere one point going into the final race of the championship.

This hairline lead for Rod notwithstanding, both riders were aware that the one who finished ahead would rightly lay his hands on the title at the end of the day – thus setting up a mouthwatering finale to the eight-round 16-race competition that was run over a period of seven months.

The second race was even more thrilling, with Rod and Aziz swapping positions with every lap until lap nine when the Saudi rider took a comfortable lead of 0.309 seconds and appeared headed to adding to his first title secured the last season.

On lap ten though things suddenly went wrong for the defending champion, his bike suffered mechanical problems and he slipped to fifth from first but gained one place on the final approach to finish fourth.

Rod gained a bonus point for the fastest lap and picked up 26 points to rider home comfortably with the title.

In the Stock Class, Motiwala continued his dominance extending his podium finishes to 15 out of 16 races finishing at top in both races for the day in the final round this afternoon.

Such was Motiwala’s dominance over his Stock Class rivals that the title was decided in his favor long before the final round. Burnside finished a credible second overall with Friday’s races a mere formality to confirm his position.

A surprise in the Stock Class was Hussain Al Kooheji who began his championship campaign on a low note but picked up pace along the way, finishing third overall. Many noted his vast improvement on the circuit in the seven months he has been racing with experts predicting a bright future.

The riders now head into the summer break and expected back later this year for the fourth edition, which is likely to see the grid expand appreciably.