Tuesday 07 / May / 2024
Muscat: The mood in the Oman Rally Team is upbeat. There is an air of cautious optimism as Oman’s Abdullah Al Rawahi and his codriver Ata Al Hmoud of Jordan gear up for the Cyprus Rally, which will decide the winner of the 2023.
FIA Middle East Rally Championship (MERC) winner. The Cyprus Rally will be held in Nicosia from October 6-8.
As history beckons for Oman Rally Team, Al Rawahi is mindful of the challenge he faces as he chases a feat that no Omani has ever come close to since the inception of MERC in 1984. Al Rawahi goes into the final round of the MERC in Cyprus as overall leader after the scheduled final round in November (Kuwait International Rally) was cancelled.
Never before has an Omani rally driver led the overall MERC standings but the 26-year-old Muscat-based driver is mindful of the task ahead as he faces a direct title showdown with one of the greatest rally drivers the region, Qatar’s Nasser Saleh Al Attiyah. Al Attiyah, the record breaking 18-time champion of the regional rally championship trails the Omani by six points in the points tally after the conclusion of fourth MERC round - Rally of Lebanon in September. On October 8, when the MERC champion will be crowned, it will be a thrilling conclusion of the season with both Al Rawahi and Al Attiyah in direct fight for the overall honours.
The battle is not just between Al Rawahi and Al Attiyah for the Drivers’ Championships but also for Co-drivers’ Championships with Al Rawahi’s co-driver Ata Al Hmoud and Al Attiyah’s navigator Mathieu Baumel also separated by six points.
What makes the final round so interesting is that Al Rawahi currently has two wins (Oman and Jordan) and a second place (Lebanon) under his belt and a non-finish (Qatar).
Al Attiyah earned a win in Qatar, second places in Oman and Jordan and crashed out of the lead at the recent Rally of Lebanon.
That means, should Al Attiyah claim the win in Cyprus and Al Rawahi fi nish second, the MERC would have a dead heat and the FIA would need to determine the winners of the championship, according to the sporting regulations for FIA Regional Rally Championships.
The likelihood of this happening is extremely high as well, because only three of the 26 crews on the official entry list are registered for the MERC, with the remainder competing in the Cyprus National Championship.
Meanwhile, a victory for Al Rawahi would give him a first ever regional title and also a first for Oman.
Seven-time Cyprus Rally winner Al Attiyah again wheels out his Autotek Motorsport-run Volkswagen Polo GTI R5, while Al Rawahi will line up in his Oman Rally Team Škoda Fabia R5.
Al Rawahi began the 2023 MERC season with a victory on his home turf, winning the opening round in Oman but was forced to retire in the next at Qatar International Rally, which was won by Al Attiyah. Rawahi’s excellent form in the season continued when he became the first ever Omani to win the Jordan Rally, the third round of the MERC, and with his second-place finish in the challenging Rally of Lebanon, the momentum has swung in his favour.
After four rounds, Al Rawahi has collected a total of 84 points while Al Attiyah has collected 78 points.
Speaking ahead of the Cyprus Rally, Al Rawahi told Times of Oman, “I will need to maintain my focus and hope luck is on my side in Cyprus. I am up against one of the greatest rally drivers in Nasser Al Attiyah. I hope I can achieve my dream of becoming the first Omani MERC champion.”
Over the past six years of his rallying career, Al Rawahi has recorded a total of four victories in MERC rally, which places him sixth best overall in the history of the championship. The only other Omani to have a rally win in the MERC is Nizar Al Shanfari.
Al Attiyah has to his credit a record 80 rally wins. UAE’s Mohammed Ben Sulayem is the next best with 60 wins while Roger Feghali of Lebanon is third with 16. Qatar’s Saeed Al Hajri with 11 and UAE’s Khalid Al Qassimi with eight are the other drivers ahead of Al Rawahi, who shares the same number of rally wins in MERC with Cyprus’s Andreas Tsouloftas.
In Cyprus, the third MERC-registered driver is Kuwait’s Meshari Al Thefi ri. The Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X driver holds third place in the Drivers’ Championship – 24 points adrift of Al Rawahi – and heads to Cyprus having already clinched another MERC2 title alongside his Qatari co-driver Nasser Al Kuwari.
Another fascinating twist to the conclusion of the series is that Al Thefiri and Al Kuwari could also win their respective titles if they were to finish the event and their rivals were to retire. They would drop a lowest five-point score, earn 30 for the win and pip Al Rawahi and Al-Hmoud to both championships by a single point.
Competition to the MERC trio comes from a host of local drivers, who have supported the event since it lost its status as a round of both the FIA World and European Rally Championships.
Christos Demosthenous wheels out his Petrolina Racing Team Škoda Fabia R5, Costas Zenonos drives a Citroën DS3 R5, Yiangou Motor Sport has entered a Hyundai i20 R5 for Panayiotis Yiangou and Simos Galatariotis drives a Petrolina Racing Team Volkswagen Polo GTI R5. The remainder of the entry is made up of Rally3, Rally4 and National cars.
Organised by the Cyprus Automobile Association, competitors will face 12 mainly gravel special stages and 195.36 competitive kilometres on Saturday and Sunday. Last year’s event was cancelled because of a government funding shortfall.
Only the Yeri and Lefkara stages, which are repeated twice on Sunday, contain small asphalt sections.
The remainder are narrow, twisty and demanding gravel trails, where the risk of punctures is large over abrasive rocky surfaces in high temperatures.
