Wednesday 24 / April / 2024
Jordan: Omani rally driver Zakaria AlAmri accompanied with Navigator Mohamed AlMazroui stands on podium of Jordan International rally when he received the third place trophy in National rally of Jordan from Prince Faisal bin Al Hussian.
The rally which consisted of 21 stages over 224 km special stages around the Dead Sea in Jordan saw Qatari champion Nasser Al Attyah winning the International title and the second place went to his colleague Abdul Aziz Al Kuwari, while the third place went to the Jordanian Marouf Abu Samara.
Three Omani drivers took part in this rally where the youngest driver Abdullah Al Rawahi with Navigator Atta Hamoud from Jordan left the rally early due to break in system in the first stage which ended him for early retirement after overlapping in the stage.
The third Omani rally driver was Zakaria Al Aufi with co-driver Amar Al Balushi who put on positive performance in this rally to stand on podium. After good performance in local rallies; he lost about 8 minutes in first stage after slipping out of the stage with some damages to the car.
Returning back to the race, Zakaria Al Aufi did very well after that, climbed up the sequence, and ended the first day 4th in the group. Putting up a lot of pressures on drivers in the front, Zakaria entered the second day of the rally with a lot of confidence after maintaining the car in the garage. He drove very fast in first 2 stages, but had another problem in fuel pump which affected him losing a lot of time. The organizing committee decided to disqualify him because of the late arrival to the start point of the third stage.
Even after being disqualified Zakaria Al Aufi has 4 points from the first day attendance and got excellent pace to drive in hard on difficult terrain like Jordan rally aiming to compete in the future rallies.
An official supporter has been with the 3 Omani drivers during the rally activities, where cornel Falah Al Falahi, member of board of Oman Automobile Association and Sulieman Al Rawahi GM OAA witnessed the rally event and stages. Meanwhile Anwar Soomar Al Zadjali did very successful job as FIA chairman of the steward panel.
Zakaria Al Amri and navigator Mohamed Al Mazroui before ending the first day of the rally faced suspension problem in the car in the last stage of the morning session, which ended his day in the maintenance garage and early retirement, but he said that he would continue the rally in the second day as super rally.
Few drivers left the rally due to technical problems and other due to accidents happened to their cars inside the stages, and after hard work in the garage done by the mechanics, Zakaria’s car was ready for the competition for the second day where he had a nice start in National rally and won some stages.
Having confidence and although doing super rally, Zakaria has a superb driving as he has reached the podium at end of the day and won the third place in the National rally, where he stated that it was very strong competition and difficult rally for all drivers.
He said, “It was the most important rally in my life and the hardest during the last 8 years in my carriers in rally world, I am glad to end up with trophy and third place in National rally of Jordan, it is an honour for me to be in this position”.
He added, “Thanks goes to my assistant Mohamed Al Mazroui who helped me a lot in this rally with his perfect notes and I am grateful to my mechanics Khalid Al Amri and Shihab for their hard work and to Saif AlHarthi, Salim Al Abri and Mohamed Al Omairi who came from Oman to help and support Oman drivers. I would like to thank my sponsor Oman United insurance for their support."
Zakaria Al Aufi said he had learned a lot from this rally and really it was the most difficult experience for him and he had understood how to deal with slippery terrain.
Abdullah Al Rawahi who left the race early said: "Well, we were optimistic and confidence in the beginning of the race and prepared well, but with the break problem we has to retire early and tried the second day with the second car as training purpose but again retired."
He added, “Now we are looking forward for the next round of MERC and focusing on future competition for better results”.
