Saturday 27 / July / 2024
MUSCAT: His potential as a rally driver has even impressed rallying greats like Nasser Saleh Al Attiyah.
Young Abdullah Al Rawahi underlined his credentials as one of the most promising rally drivers in the region on Saturday when he became the first Omani ever to win the Jordan Rally, the third round of 2023 FIA-Middle East Rally Championship (MERC) along with his co-driver Ata Al Hmoud from Jordan.
Racing in the Dead Sea and Jordan Valley areas of the Kingdom that had world-class stages and amid a highly-competitive field, Al Rawahi and Al Hmoud withstood a dramatic fightback by 15-time event winner Nasser Saleh Al Attiyah, whose chare was thwarted by punctures on the closing stages of a pulsating rally on Saturday.
Al Rawahi and local driver Al Hmoud had taken a lead of 2min 33.5sec into the final six special stages in the Dead Sea and Jordan Valley areas in their Škoda Fabia Evo.
But defending champion Al Attiyah and his co-driver Mathieu Baumel of France launched a full-scale fightback during the morning and reduced the deficit to 1min 20sec at the midday service point.
The pendulum appeared to have swung in the Qatari’s favour when the Oman Rally Team crew clocked out of service three minutes late and incurred a 30-second time penalty, reducing the deficit to 50 seconds. But Al Attiyah was forced to change a punctured tyre on the first test after the restart and then punctured again with Al Rawahi reaching the finish 7min 04.2sec clear of the struggling defending champion.
With the pressure off on the final stage, it enabled Al-Rawahi to secure his third career MERC win and Al-Hmoud became the first Jordanian to win his home rally since Amjad Farrah and Khalid Zakaria prevailed on a dramatic final stage way back in 2004.
Al Rawahi’s third success drew him level with the late Björn Waldegård, Jean-Pierre Nasrallah and Abdullah Bakhashab in the regional Hall of Fame. His previous two MERC wins came at home when he won the first-leg of Oman International Rally in 2022 and earlier in January this year
A delighted Al Rawahi said: “It’s been a very tough weekend for us. The stages were really nice and we enjoyed them. We managed to win this rally. The second day was difficult, actually starting first on the road. Nasser [Al Attiyah] was trying to keep the pressure but we held on. Well done to my team. They have worked really hard this weekend. It’s an amazing feeling.
“When I started rallying my first rally was here in Jordan, so it’s a big thing for me. I have been gaining so much experience against the champion. Every rally we learn a lot, especially from the pressure we were in this weekend. We won the first rally and now this one. We will keep pushing and see what happens.”
Al Attiyah said: “This is my favourite race but, this year, it was not easy. Day one and day two, we were struggling a little bit with the problems. Today we had two flat tyres in the same stage and we tried to manage three stages with punctures and we had only one spare. We made it happen. It was important to finish and we finished second. Well done to Abdullah [Al Rawahi], he did an amazing race. Still, we are leading the championship and we look ahead to Lebanon. I am disappointed at one point but, on the other, I am happy to finish.”
Meshari Al-Thefiri teamed up with Qatar’s Nasser Al-Kuwari and were the class of the MERC2 field for the third successive event this season. The Kuwaiti rounded off the podium places and finished 6min 49.2sec clear of fourth-placed Jordanian Shaker Jweihan and his Omani co-driver Taha Al Zadjali.
Twenty-three crews and competitors from six nations competed in the Jordan Rally with 17 eligible for the FIA event and a further six able to score points for the Jordan National Championship.
The next action in the 2023 FIA Middle East Rally Championship will be in Lebanon from September 15-17.
2023 Jordan Rally [top-five]: 1. Abdullah Al Rawahi (Oman)/Ata Al-Hmoud (Jordan) Škoda Fabia Evo 2hr 24min 18.3sec, 2. Nasser Saleh Al Attiyah (Qatar)/Mathieu Baumel (France) Volkswagen Polo GTI R5 2hr 31min 22.5sec, 3. Meshari Al Thefiri (Kuwait)/Nasser Al Kuwari (Qatar) Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X 2hr 32min 55.5sec, 4 Shaker Jweihan (Jordan)/Taha Al Zadjali (Oman) Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X 2hr 39min 44.7sec, 5. Shadi Shaban (Jordan)/Samer Issa (Jordan) Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX 2hr 41min 46.1sec.
