JEDDAH, 24 October 2003 — Saudi Rally driver Farooq Ghourab said on Wednesday night that he was confident of “making it big” in the two upcoming rounds of the Middle East 2003 Rally Championship.
“With a change of car and change in my strategy, I’m determined to represent the Kingdom in both Cyprus and Dubai rounds along with other Saudi colleagues,” Ghourab, 30, told a press conference at Jeddah Marriott.
These rounds will mark the completion of the Middle East 2003 Rally Championship.
The Cyprus Rally is scheduled from Oct. 31 to Nov. 3, and the Dubai Rally from Dec. 3 to 5.
A native of Jeddah, Ghourab heads the Saudi Future Rally Team that he proposes to form under the sponsorship of Alesayi Panasonic. “I’ll be in group ‘A’ and use Mitsubishi EVO 8 in the coming two rounds. My co-driver will be Omani rally driver Homoud Al-Jabri,” he said.
The Middle East championship began with the Qatar Rally from Feb. 26-28. This was followed by Lebanon Rally from July 4-6, Jordan Rally July 24-26, and Syria Rally Sept. 10-12.
The Saudi driver showed his interest in the rally sport when he began practicing rally skills some years ago. He then took part in many tournaments including Jet-Sky and won some titles. “I, however, consider the Jeddah Tourism Festival championship as a breakthrough contest for me because of its daredevilry,” he said.
“In fact, I cherished the idea of taking part in rallies thanks to the encouragement from Saudi Rally driver Ahmed Al-Sabban with whom I was associated,” said Ghourab whose first international rally participation was in Lebanon in 2001. “Lebanon International Rally is considered one of the most important rounds in the Middle East Championship because it is the roughest and the toughest, and I topped the Team ‘A’ using the Seat Apeaza race car,” Ghourab said.
This win made him participate in the following year using Subaru Empreza in Team ‘N’ and was placed third in the team. He was then enlisted in the Lebanon Rally of 2003 using the same race car, which he had owned by then. The first round of the race was in Qatar where he was placed 7th in Team ‘N.’ His second participation in Lebanon Rally was unsuccessful as he met with an accident while avoiding a lamp post. He next took part in the Jordan Rally where he was placed 7th in Team ‘N’ and thus won the trophy for the best Saudi Team in the competition.
