Yesterday I took part in the first open track event at Kuwait Motor Town and I had such a great experience I had to share it on the blog. The day after it still feels a bit unreal, not only do we finally have our very own race track in Kuwait, but it’s a great one as well!
National Circuit (4,540M)
Our track layout is just incredible! They had the National Circuit layout open for yesterdays event (pictured above) and compared to the two track layouts I’ve raced on in Bahrain, I think ours is way more fun. It’s fast, long and there is a lot going on all the way. I was worried the track might favor larger more powerful cars but I think it works really favorably for mine.
The video above is a full lap around the track starting from the pit lane exit. Sorry about the sound, and RIP little bug my GoPro killed halfway through.
The open track started from very early in the morning. According to the schedule they sent us we were meant to arrive around 8:30 so we could start with the registration process before the drivers briefing at 9:20. I got there early around 8:15AM and to my surprise, there were cars there already. People actually started showing up on time and so the drivers briefing started on schedule with a brief about the track, the different warning flags as well as giving us a bunch of safety tips. Super informative for first time open trackers.
This is probably a good time to highlight the fact that the team working at KMT yesterday were extremely professional. Everyone knew what they were doing and the whole thing was extremely organized. It didn’t feel like their first open track event, it felt like it was something they had been doing for years and that was impressive.
I didn’t count the number of cars yesterday, but I think we were around 60 in total since I was #59. They divided us into two groups, I was in Group B. Another example of how organized they were, they handed out lanyards with our names and group letter on the front, while the backside had the days schedule. That was incredibly practical, in Bahrain we’re always asking what time lunch is or when our turn is etc..
Once we were done with the briefing we took our cars into the pitlane. The pits I think were the most disappointing part about KMT. They were small, had low ceilings and the bathrooms felt cheap and flimsy. That’s one thing I prefer about Bahrain’s circuit over ours and it’s my only complaint about Kuwait Motor Town. But, it’s not a deal breaker.
The first sessions of the day involved following a lead car. This wasn’t at very high speeds and it was to familiarize ourselves with the track and the racing lines. Once those practice sessions were done, it was flat out racing and it was so much fun. I had a bunch of friends in the same group as me so we just spent the day racing each other. The video above was shot from inside my car and kind of gives you an idea of how it feels to race in an open track event. The track is overexposed in the video but you can still make out the tarmac and the cars so it’s watchable. Keep in mind there are no winners in an open track event, it’s all just for fun.
The event finished at 5PM just as the sun was setting. It’s a beautiful track and looked even better as the sun was setting. I really had such a blast yesterday and now I can’t wait till the next open track event. No offense to ASCC and JACC, but this is by far my favorite Diwan Al Amiri project. Thank you KMT for hosting such a great track day. For more information about Kuwait Motor Town and a list of their upcoming events, here is a link to their [Website]
There are three cool things happening this weekend. The first is the Kuwait Baseball Championship which of course means corndogs and lemonade, the second is the Show Jumping Competition, and the third is the Kuwait Motor Town Open Track which I’m taking part in (open to spectators). Check out the full list of this weekends events below:
Kuwait Motor Town are going to start running their own Open Trackdays at the circuit starting from March. An open track is when drivers can sign up to race their cars around the circuit for fun.
Their first open track is this coming Saturday (March 2) with a car and driver entry fee of KD75 which is pretty good (Bahrain International Circuit is around KD70 for example). I think the open track limit is 50 or 60 cars and they sold out of spots a few hours after announcing it. I managed to book a spot for me, so I’ll be participating with my Lotus Cup car this Saturday.
The only issue I’m concerned about is there is no fuel station at the track and the nearest fuel stations are a bit far out so its a BYOF (bring your own fuel) situation which is annoying. In Bahrain, I tend to get three 30 minute sessions done before needing to refuel, but there is a gas station inside the track and a couple outside, across the street from the circuit. I probably need to go scout the gas stations around KMT before Saturday and figure out which one would be the quickest to get to and back without wasting a lot of time.
I’m super excited about this since I’ll be able to take part in a lot more track days compared to before, and it’s going to save me a lot of money since I no longer have to keep shipping my car to Bahrain every time I want to track the car. If you missed signing up to this open track there will be more coming, here was the link to the sign-up page [Link]
Update: I ended up heading towards KMT this morning to check out the fuel situation. For those taking part, or planning to take part in the future and want to know what the fuel situation is, here is what you need to know:
At the moment there is no gas station at the track. There is one gas station around 15 minutes before the track that has Ultra 98 fuel (green), and this would be a good station to top off your fuel before getting to the track. Here is the location of that station on [Google Maps].
Once you’re at the track the closest fuel station with Ultra 98 fuel is in Ali Sabah Al Salem area [Google Maps]. It takes around 10 minutes to get there from the track without any traffic and all the traffic lights green. It then takes around 12 minutes to get from there back to the track. So if you include the fueling process, it will take you over 30 minutes to leave the track, fuel up and come back.
Update 2: Spectators are allowed to come and watch from the grand stands. There is no entry fee, it’s free. Here is the location of the track on [Google Maps]
Right now it doesn’t look like there is a lot going on this long weekend but I’ll keep looking for events and adding them to the list. For now below is everything I could find, if I missed anything let me know.
Now that Kuwait Airways has new planes and a new terminal, they’re finally catching up to other airlines and adding more destinations. They’re starting off with two right now, Guangzhou (China) and Sabiha (Turkey). Bizarre destinations but I guess there must be high demand for them. They’ll also soon be adding flights to:
Casablanca, Morocco
Nice, France (via Paris)
Larnaca, Cyprus (via Beirut)
Sarajevo, Bosnia
Baku, Azerbajan
Tbilisi, Georgia
I’d personally want to see European destinations like Amsterdam, Berlin, Moscow and Zagreb, but direct flights to Morocco is actually pretty cool.
Has anyone flown Kuwait Airways recently? The main old terminal never has any traffic anymore, but I’ve heard the Kuwait Airways Terminal now gets super busy with long queues at passport control. Also did anything new open up there, or is it still just Costa?
In May 1960, an international competition was held for the architectural project for this state museum to be located in the cultural district of the 1952 Master Plan. The rules of the competition organized the museum into four thematic areas: “Land of Kuwait”, which illustrated the natural geography of Kuwait; “Man of Kuwait”, which focused on the traditional Kuwaiti vernacular language; and “Kuwait of Today and Tomorrow”, which showed Kuwaiti technological advances. In addition, there was a section for temporary exhibitions.
The winner of the competition was the project of Michel Écochard, author of the Museum of Antioch and the Cité horizontale in Casablanca. Michel Écochard was also a follower of modern premises, and an important member of ATBAT-Afrique, a subsidiary group of CIAM. Écochard organized the museum into four brick buildings with a concrete roof. This allowed the visitors to choose the order of their visit to the contents of the museum. The buildings were connected by raised corridors, and a planetarium completed the whole. [Source]
AGI Architects published a very interesting article on the history of Kuwait National Museum. Sadly, the article doesn’t mention anything about the current plan, just that in 2014 it was decided to reactivate the National Museum. When I drove by the museum this past weekend, the exterior renovations look mostly done. But, I’m curious on what the current plan is and when are they expecting it to be completed. So if you have any information on this, please share it in the comments.
One of the advantages of flying out of the new Kuwait Airways terminal was the fact that their parking was free since they hadn’t installed the parking gates yet. But, that isn’t the case anymore. Here are the new T4 parking rates:
Short Term Parking
500fils for the first hour
500fils for the second hour
1KD per hour after that
Long Term Parking
2KD per day
Long term parking cost is the same in both the main terminal and the Kuwait Airways terminal. The short term parking, on the other hand, is different. Short term parking at the main terminal is 200 fils for the first hour and 400 fils per hour subsequently. It’s also a maximum (if I remember correctly) 5KD a day.
I got a WhatsApp forward of someone’s parking bill at the Kuwait Airways terminal, they had accidentally parked in the short term lot for 2 days and 9 hours and ended up with a bill of 55KD. So if you do fly out of T4, make sure you park your car in the correct lot.
Below is this weekends list of events. If you’ve never been to a KBSC baseball game there is one this Friday, it’s super fun and there will be corndogs and lemonade! As usual, if I missed anything, let me know.
Over the weekend I found out that the IKEA Kuwait website now allows you to purchase items online. Previously you could only flip through their catalog but now you can actually purchase the items you’re interested in and have them delivered to your home. Delivery cost is a fixed KD10 fee no matter what you buy and if you want assembly, that’s another KD10.
I actually enjoy physically shopping at IKEA, but I know a lot of people who’d rather not have to deal with the chaos of IKEA on a weekend. I actually think Kuwait has outgrown the current IKEA and they really should open a second location or build a larger one. On one of my LA trips I passed by the IKEA there to check out because I read it was the largest IKEA in America, oh my god it was so insanely huge. To give you an idea of how huge, the IKEA in Kuwait is around 5,000sqm while the one in LA is around 42,000sqm. Even the IKEA in Bahrain is huge compared to Kuwait at 37,000 sqm.
