Friday 26 / April / 2024
Muscat: Facing stiff competition from foreign and local drivers, Irishman James Dean was crowned the champion of the first stage of the Oman International Drift Championship, which kicked off on Thursday, January 30, 2020, at the Muscat Arena circuit at the Oman Automobile Association.
Dutch contestant Sebastian Fontaine came in second, while Omani contestant Tariq Al Shihani was third. In the Middle East and North Africa category of the race, all of the top three positions were taken by Omani drivers. Tariq Al Shihani won first place, in second place was Sami Al-Shaibani, while the third place was won by Haitham Al Hadidi.
At the beginning of the first stage of the championship on Friday evening, the contestants and all the audience stood for a minute of mourning for late His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said bin Taimour. The qualifying rounds for the thirty-two contestants were then launched according in order of points, with the first race of the day beginning with 32 drivers at noon, a number that was subsequently whittled down to 16, eight and then four in subsequent races.
Speaking after his win, James Dean said, “I am happy with this victory, but we still have the next two stages and the important thing is to maintain our level until the entire championship title is decided, because this is a system where there is a champion for each of the three stages, and this is separate from those who will be crowned the overall winners.
“Winning was not easy, especially given that this was the strongest championship in the Middle East, and we were witnessing the participation of international stars,” he added. “I made a lot of effort and tried with difficulty to move from one position to another, until I got to the front, and I look to come here again after two weeks for the second stage.”
Omani contestant Haitham Al Hadidi said, “My thanks to God for getting a third place finish in this stage. I tried to compete with all my strength and pressed a lot in moving from one spot to another and from one position to another and I think that this third place finish in the international championship level is reasonable. I hope to achieve better levels during the next two phases.
“The reason I call this a respectable finish is because of the faults that I experienced,” he added. “I am referring here to a clutch issue that we tried to fix, but we were not able to on time. But more importantly, the Omani youth participating in the tournament performed exceptionally well and achieved distinguished positions.”
Irishman James Dean is the reigning champion of the Oman International Drift Championship, having won it in its previous two editions of 2018 and 2019, and he has also been the champion of the Irish and European Masters Drift championships on five occasions.
This edition of the championship, now in its season, witnessed the participation of 48 contestants from 17 countries, namely the United States, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Ireland, Lithuania, Latvia, Malaysia, Jordan, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Kuwait, Lebanon, Ukraine, Russia, Japan, and the Sultanate of Oman which organised the competition.
After the race, the Vice President of the Oman Automobile Association, Brigadier Jamal Al Taei, handed the winners’ cups to the first place finishers, and he also delivered the trophies to those who had finished in the top three across three categories: international category, Middle East and North Africa, and local.
