Sunday 17 / November / 2024
Muscat: Motorsport enthusiasts in Oman will be counting down the hours to December 9 to take to the streets in droves, honking their horns and waving their flags in glee as they welcome the Sultanate’s first ever Red Bull Car Park Drift final.
The seventh edition of the tournament is set to be held at the famous old Port Sultan Qaboos in Muttrah, and will be attended by His Highness Sayyid Taimur bin As’ad Al Said, who was also the chief guest for Red Bull’s previous motorsports excursion in Oman, the Red Bull Formula 1 Showrun, which featured legendary British racing driver David Coulthard.
Oman’s maiden Red Bull Car Park Drift final will feature the winners of the drift qualifiers from other Arab nations, including Qatar, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Egypt, Mauritius, Lebanon, Tunisia, Morocco, and Jordan.
But what will be of particular pride to Omanis will be the three local representatives in the competition.
First-place winner Ali Al Balushi took home the local championship for the fourth consecutive year. At only 18 years of age, first-time competitor Haitham Al Hadidi thrived under pressure to take second place. Tarek Al Shaihani finished third and will join his countrymen at Port Sultan Qaboos the Friday after next.
One of the primary sponsors for the event will be Falken Tyres, long-time providers of high-performance tyres to the competitors who take part in the Cark Park Drift.
And Matt Hachiya, Falken’s General Manager of Sales and Marketing, is thrilled to see the final of this prestigious tournament being held in Oman.
“After such a thrilling and competitive season, we have no doubt that the final will deliver excitement and amazing drifting skills from all the drivers,” he said. “For Falken Tyres, it has been fantastic to be part of the Red Bull Car Park Drift Series 2016, and we are honoured to be a partner for the Red Bull Car Park Drift Final in Oman.
“Through our partnership of the series, we have been able to connect with so many new customers and introduce them to our high-performance tyres,” he added.
“We want our fans to be able to experience the exhilarating final too, so we are running a competition to win exclusive passes to the final on our Facebook page, FalkenMEA.”
The course for the final leg of the Red Bull Car Park Drift will be designed by legendary Lebanese drifting champion Abdo Feghali, who holds the record for the world’s longest drift at 1:29:55, and has many drifting titles to his name.
In 2013, Feghali won the overall Lebanese Rally Championship. He was also crowned the Middle East’s Hill Climb Champion from 2007 to 2010 and the Lebanese Hill Climb Champion between 2006 and 2012.
Feghali’s track is set to take centrestage on December 9, where the Middle East’s best drifters will be judged by an expert panel of judges, on the basis of the impressiveness of their cars, how long they are able to drift, and even the length of their smoke trails.
Tickets for the final are now available, and are priced at OMR3 (standing), OMR10 (grandstand) and OMR25 (premium grandstand). For further information on tickets, visit redbull.com/cpd or contact the Oman Automobile Association.
