JEDDAH, 17 December 2004 — Saudi Arabia’s rally dream team headed by experienced driver Ahmed Al Sabban and young and determined driver Essa Al Dossari enjoyed one of their most successful seasons with fourth and seventh in the overall standings of the 2004 FIA Middle East Rally Championship which ended recently in Dubai.
In a hope to complete their program with a podium finish, the Saudi drivers supported by Al Rabie and MBC, headed to Dubai, the last round of FIA Middle East Rally Championship with one thing in mind to keep up their positions as the third for Al Sabban and fourth for Al Dossari since the first and second positions already clinched for UAE’s Al Qassimi and Qatar’s Al Attiyah.
“Well, we knew that the first and second positions already clinched by the two contenders but we were really determined to be with the top drivers and keep our pace as high as we could.
For myself, I was hoping to finish third in the overall standing but I drove in a mature and restrained manner to take the fourth position while my teammate finished seventh unfortunately,” Al Sabban said.
During the final round of the year held in Dubai, Al Sabban struggled to get into the podium places when he stopped in the opening stage to assist UAE’s Al Qassimi, when the latter’s car caught fire, and lost around five minutes for his sportsmanship.
Al Sabban said “ I knew that I will be losing a potential time but Al Qassimi needed help, so I had to offer help without even thinking of how far I get in the standings.”
For his sportsmanship the organizing committee had decided to hand back Al Sabban the time he had lost on the first stage assisting Al Qassimi.
Meanwhile, Al Dossari who set his first ever championship fastest stage time on the second day, was later rolled out of the fifth place in the ninth stage.
Positions after round 8: 1. Khalid Al-Qassimi (UAE) — Subaru 51 pts; 2 Nasser Saleh Al-Attiyah (QA) — Subaru 44 pts; 3 Andreas Tsouloftas (CY) 26 pts; 4 Ahmed Al Sabban (KSA) 22 pts 5. Amjad Farrah (HKJ) 18 pts; 6 Abdo Feghali (RL) 8 pts 14 pts; 7 Issa Al-Dossari (KSA) 12 pts; 7 Abdullah Al Qassimi (UAE) 12 pts; 9 Roger Feghali (RL) 10 pts; 10 Suhail Khalifa (UAE) 8 pts; 10 Michel Saleh (RL) 8 pts.
