DAMMAM: The Kingdom’s first ever international special stage rally — the 2008 Sharqia Rally — gets under way with a four-kilometer timed super special today. The event marks the country’s first footsteps on a path toward a place in the 2009 FIA Middle East Rally Championship.
An impressive 23 entrants will tackle 13 timed special stages in the popular Half-Moon Bay area of the Eastern Province. The new event is run by the Saudi Arabian Motor Federation under the patronage of Prince Mohammed bin Fahd , governor of the Eastern Province and the chairman of the Higher Committee for the new Saudi Rally.
The largest country in the Middle East has never hosted a round of the regional rally series before, but this ground-breaking candidate event is being observed by the sport’s governing body, FIA, and follows swiftly behind the successes of the Hail Saudi Baja, which took its place in the FIA International Cup for Bajas last year.
Event officials have devised a compact route within close proximity to the event’s headquarters at the King Fahd Coastal City on the shores of the Arabian Gulf. “The stages are all within 35 kilometers of the headquarters and run on compacted sand and smooth surfaces and competitors should not suffer from any punctures,” said Bahraini clerk of the course Elie Semaan. “There are no rocks, but we have come up with some varied stages, which will be run in reverse on the second day.
The first two are twisty and technical and the third one is a little faster. Some of the route passes within 10 meters of the sea and they are all very scenic. I would say that they are similar to the stages we used to run in the south of Bahrain in the old days and they also resemble some of the terrain that was used on the older Dubai rallies on day one in the Jebel Ali area. Next year we will source some more stages when we hope that the event is in the Middle East Championship.”
Jordan’s seeded driver Amjad Farrah will lead the lineup of drivers from Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Portugal, Kuwait, the United Kingdom, Jordan, Qatar and Lebanon into the timed super special today from 3:25 p.m. Cars will then enter a parc ferme area, before restarting with a further six special stages tomorrow and as many again on Thursday, with the event reaching a conclusion with the ceremonial finish at the King Fahd Coastal City at 4 p.m. on Thursday.
“We are looking forward to hosting this first international event in the Eastern Province and, hopefully, taking our place in the FIA Middle East Rally Championship next year,” said Mishaal Al-Sudairy, president of the Saudi Arabian Motor Federation (SAMF).
