LOSAIL (Qatar): Saudi Arabia’s Saleh Al Saif will be looking forward to some success at the 2021 Qatar International Rally (QIR), which starts later in the evening today.
Saleh is one of the better-known drivers on the Middle East cross-country scene and set some superb stage times on the Dakar Rally.
Meanwhile, the competitors passed their scrutiny and technical checks for FIA homologation compliance on Friday morning at the Losail Sports Centre.
One of the region’s most famous motor sporting events has been put together under rigid Covid-19 safety guidelines and the Qatar Motor and Motorcycle Federation (QMMF) has laid on a challenging route through the northern deserts.
The QIR will be held under the chairmanship of QMMF President Abdulrahman Al Mannai, senior committee member Abdulrazaq Al Kuwari and QMMF’s Executive Director Amro Al Hamad.
Saleh has already left his mark
He also won the T3 category at the Ha’il International Rally in February last year and topped the podium in both Ha’il Bajas in December.
The Saudi was a Dakar front-runner for several days in the SSV T4 category and has travelled to Qatar to compete at the rear of the international field.
His co-driver Spaniard Oriol Vidal, who hails from the small village of Llambilles in northern Catalonia, is a performance engineer in the Superbikes World Championship (WorldSBK) besides his involvement in Dakar-type events.
But they face competition in the category from the Lebanese crew of Jad Al Aawar and Vicken Kanledjian.
Qatar-based Al Aawar is a regular competitor in the Lebanese national rally series with a Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX and is taking part with a Can-Am this weekend.
His best result came with fifth place and third in Group N at the 2019 Jezzine Rally in Lebanon, but he has also competed in Qatar speed tests and hill climbs in Lebanon. His co-driver Kanledjian lists second overall at the 2017 Cedars Rally as his best result to date with Joseph Hindi.
Al Aawar is running in a four-car Lebanese team under the Team AMT banner in Qatar alongside MERC 3 front-runner Henry Kahy and MERC 2 competitors Ahmad Khaled and Shadi El-Fakih.
The operation runs under the management of 2001 Lebanese national rally series winner Doumit bou Doumit.
Meanwhile, the top competitors were joined by a group of drivers entered in lightweight prototype vehicles in a T3 class that is permitted to take part in the FIA World Cup for Cross-Country Rallies.
The FIA T3 category is not permitted to enter MERC rounds, however, and these drivers will run in a separate Qatar National Rally category behind the main field in their uprated Can-Am and Polaris derivatives.
The FIA has, however, permitted the use of FIA T4 vehicles this season on the gravel rounds of the MERC in Qatar, Oman, Jordan, Cyprus and Kuwait. They don’t have the performance or tuning enhancements of their T3 stable mates but featured strongly at the recent Dakar Rally.
T3 Can-Am Maverick X3s snatched the top three places in the SSV (T3 and T4 combined) category with Chile’s Francisco Lopez holding off the challenge from America’s Austin Jones and Poland’s Aron Domzala.
Normally associated with battling the elements and the toughest off-road terrain in the world, these durable windshield-less vehicles will be an interesting spectacle on shorter special stages that feature in the MERC.
