JEDDAH, 29 January 2005 — Among the region’s finest rally drivers, Saudi ace Ahmed Al-Sabban, leader of the Saudi Rally Dream Team, joins the region’s best in Abu Dhabi next week in competition to kick off the first round of the new season of the 2005 FIA Middle East Rally Championship. The event is set for Feb. 2-4.
Al-Sabban in his his Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution with Irish co-driver Killian Duffy, finished fourth in last year’s Middle East Rally Championship after a long year, which was considered as his best ever performance.
Hoping for better results, Al-Sabban told Arab News that he is heading to Abu Dhabi with a hope to have a good start to the new season. “ Well, it is going to be a very tough year but my ambition is to bring out the best of me and to continue what I have started last year which was not bad at all,” he said.
Al-Sabban said that he aims to provide further evidence that the Saudi Rally Dream Team is now the most potent force in the Middle East Rally Championship. “Being the only Saudi team among the other region’s teams, it really makes it hard for me but I am set for the new challenge especially after the great year I had last year,” he added.
The Saudi Rally Dream team’s leader who is supported by Al-Rabie Saudi Dairy Company this year feels very optimistic and enthusiastic about the first round in Abu Dhabi and hopes he collects as much points he could to compete for the first places.
The 2004 FIA Middle East Rally Championship has been the best-supported in the history of the regional series and early indications suggest that the 2005 series will be even more popular with numerous GCC and Middle East drivers putting together their plans and preparations for the series.
This has been reduced to eight events following the cancellation of the event in Bahrain and permits the use of Group N and Super 1600 cars only.
The 2005 FIA Middle East Rally Championship will also organize events in Oman in March, Qatar in April, Jordan in May, Lebanon in July and rallies in Syria, Cyprus and Dubai in September, October and December 2005.
