Rally of Syria - 11-13 Jun 09

First MERC victory for the Peugeot 207 S2000 Kronos

Posted: June 16, 2009 1:05 PM

Saudi driver, Yazeed Al Rajhi and French co-driver Matthieu Baumel gave Peugeot and Kronos the first victory of a «S2000» car in the Middle East Rally Championship, during the third round of the Championship which took place this weekend in Sednaya, Syria.

Run on a particularly tough road and in heavy weather conditions, with temperatures way above 30 degrees Celsius, Yazeed and Matthieu quickly took the lead of the race which consisted in 13 stages with a total of 257 km to run in two days.

Winner of six stages and finishing the race with a lead of about 4 minutes on the Championship leader's Subaru, Qatari Misfer Al Marri, Yazeed was beaming: « I am proud of this first victory of the season because it was a particularly challenging road with a lot of stones and ditches. My 207 was perfect, as well as the team by the way! I am starting to really handle the car well, which is of good omen for the rest of the championship ».

With just 3 points behind the leader, this victory gives Yazeed a chance to run for the title.

SAUDI ARABIA’S YAZEED AL-RAJHI CLINCHES MAIDEN MIDDLE EAST SERIES WIN IN SYRIA

Posted: June 13, 2009 10:45 PM

Saudi Arabia’s Yazeed Al-Rajhi and French co-driver Matthieu Baumel secured their first win in the FIA Middle East Rally Championship in the Syrian International Rally, which finished in Sednaya on Saturday.  

The pair had already won the Ha’il Saudi Baja earlier this season and the Sharqia candidate event last November, but a comfortable victory on the 13-special stage Syrian event lifted Al-Rajhi to within two points of Qatar’s Nasser Saleh Al-Attiyah in the Drivers’ Championship with four rounds remaining. The success was the first for an S2000 car in the Middle East and the first for a Saudi driver since Abdullah Bakhashab won the Rally of Lebanon in 1996.  

Al-Rajhi survived niggling problems during the first leg to coax his Peugeot 207 S2000 to the finish, 3m 58.4s in front of runners-up, Misfer Al-Marri and Chris Patterson. Al-Marri had the consolation of moving into the outright lead of the regional series by a single point from Al-Attiyah.  

Lebanon’s Nick Georgiou and Joseph Matar qualified for the Pirelli ‘Star Driver’ final in Dubai in December, despite last stage delays that cost the crew second overall. They finished fourth.  

“This is an important step in my career,” said a delighted Al-Rajhi. “This is my first championship rally win and it is a special feeling. Now I have a good chance to take this further and push on for the title. The next round in Lebanon will be so important and I will need to score as many points as possible.”  

Al-Marri and Ulster co-driver Patterson were the form team during the second leg and eventually finished second overall after passing local front-runner Haitham Al-Yousefi on the first stage of the day and Qatar’s Mubarak Al-Hajri on the final stage.  

“The damage was done with the power steering problems on Friday,” admitted Al-Marri. “Today was a rescue exercise to try and redeem as many points as possible and keep the championship push alive.”  

Sheikh Abdullah Al-Qassimi’s overheating problems had caused reported head gasket problems and terminal engine damage on Friday and the former regional Group N champion was unable to restart under SupeRally conditions. Three cars did use the SupeRally ruling to join the surviving 14 entrants from day one to tackle the eighth stage. Abdulaziz Al-Kuwari was also a non-starter with drive shaft problems and Ahmad Hamsho was forced to withdraw from the event with mechanical problems before the first stage of the day.  

Al-Marri had planned the grand attack in a bid to snatch fourth place and the Qatari disposed of Al-Yousefi with the fastest time in the 18.8k Deir Atiyah stage. Al-Hajri was second quickest and the result lifted the Qatari to within 67 seconds of Al-Rajhi. But the Saudi hit back in SS9 and romped back into a 1m 52s lead as delays for Al-Hajri pushed him into the clutches of a hard-charging Georgiou. The pair were separated by just 4.9 seconds heading into the 10th stage, near An Nabek. Engine problems accounted for Qatar’s Jaber Al-Marri and Kuwait’s Essam Al-Nejadi and Jordan’s Faris Hijazi retired with a broken differential at the end of SS9.  

Al-Rajhi was on a charge again through SS10 and reached the Deir Atiyah service point with a 2m 23.6s advantage over Georgiou, who had moved ahead of the slowing Al-Hajri after the stage. Kuwait’s Meshari Al-Thafiri lost over seven minutes and plummeted out of the top 10. Al-Hajri dropped still further behind Georgiou when an erroneous stage time from leg one was corrected, although the Qatari maintained third position.  

Al-Marri beat Al-Hajri by six seconds in SS11 and closed to within 36 seconds of third place, as the leading duo stayed clear of trouble heading into the penultimate stage. The stage was set for a fascinating showdown between the two Qatari drivers for third place, with Al-Marri needing to claw back just under one second per kilometre in the remaining two stages to snatch a vital extra championship point.  

He clawed back 22 seconds in the penultimate stage and headed into the final 25km needing to overturn a deficit of 13.7 seconds. He managed to take the championship lead and second place with a sterling fight-back, but Georgiou almost threw away a finish on the final stage in a carbon copy of the woes he suffered in Qatar back in January. He lost three minutes and slipped to fourth overall.  

This year’s rally was held under the patronage of the Syrian Ministry of Tourism and has support from the Sheraton Ma’aret Sednaya, Orient TV, Runnet, Tafour Gardens, Arabisc Radio, Europcar and Nissan.

Results

Posted: June 13, 2009 10:37 PM

1. Yazeed Al-Rajhi (KSA)/Matthieu Baumel (F) (Peugeot 207 S2000)                        2h 39m 54.7s
2. Misfer Al-Marri (QA)/Chris Patterson (GB)            (Subaru Impreza)                                   2h 43m 53.1s
3. Mubarak Al-Hajri (QA)/Adel Hussein (QA)            (Subaru Impreza)                                   2h 44m 21.6s
4. Nick Georgiou (RL)/Joseph Matar (RL) (Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution)                        2h 45m 45.2s           
5. Haitham Al-Yousefi (SYR)/Yousef Al-Asmar (HKJ) (Subaru Impreza)                        2h 47m 25.5s

Full Results & Tracking: Syrian Rally

Preview: QATAR’S MISFER AL-MARRI/CHRIS PATTERSON LEADS FIELD INTO SYRIAN INTERNATIONAL RALLY

Posted: June 11, 2009 7:56 PM

Qatar’s Misfer Al-Marri and Ulster co-driver Chris Patterson lead a 19-strong international field into the Syrian International Rally, round three of the FIA Middle East Rally Championship, on Friday morning.  

In the absence of Qatar’s Nasser Saleh Al-Attiyah and the UAE’s Sheikh Khalid Al-Qassimi – who are both tackling the Acropolis Rally in Greece – a new winner of the newest round of the regional series is guaranteed.  

Saudi Arabia’s Yazeed Al-Rajhi and the UAE’s Sheikh Abdullah Al-Qassimi should be Al-Marri’s closest challengers over the 13 desert special stages on Friday and Saturday in the area around Deir Atiyah. Of the entered drivers, only Al-Qassimi and Lebanon’s Michel Saleh have won a round of the regional series before and a new winner is highly likely on the 151st event in the history of the championship.  

Al-Marri will catapult himself into the outright championship lead if he can secure 10 points for victory this weekend and his chance of taking the regional title for the first time will be further bolstered by the news that Volkswagen cross-country rallying commitments in Brazil may well force Al-Attiyah to miss the forthcoming Rally of Lebanon as well.  

Mechanical problems cost Al-Rajhi crucial points in Kuwait back in March, but the Saudi driver collected eight for second position in Qatar and is also eyeing a bid for the crown, in what could develop into the most open title race for years. Al-Qassimi finished second overall in Syria last season and had the measure of Al-Marri, so a fascinating three-way battle is in prospect for the podium places.  

“I think that this could be one of the closest rallies in the region for a while,” said Al-Qassimi’s co-driver Steve Lancaster. “Abdullah likes competing here and is often on the podium. Yazeed knows that he needs the points and Misfer will be feeling a little pressure starting as the top seed and knowing the burden is on him to win.”  

Al-Marri’s co-driver Chris Patterson is upbeat about his driver’s chances. “There’s no question that this is the most critical rally of our season. We know that we need to take 10 points here to have a shout at the championship, but we also need to be clever and not take too many risks. Yes, we may have to push at times, but we need to finish and score points.”  

Haitham Al-Yousefi and Ahmad Hamsho head the Syrian Rally Team and there is a strong presence from the Qatar Motor & Motorcycle Federation (QMMF). Joining Al-Marri on the entry list are Mubarak Al-Hajri, veteran Jaber Al-Marri, Khalid Al-Suwaidi, Abdulaziz Al-Kuwari and the 1993 regional champion, Sheikh Hamed Bin Eid Al-Thani.  

Nick Georgiou will be chasing regional championship and Pirelli ‘Star Driver’ points. The Lebanese driver missed out on the coveted Pirelli prize on a technicality last season and needs to finish in Syria to stake his claim on the West Zone championship and qualification for the Pirelli final in Dubai in December.  

Kuwait’s Meshari Al-Thafiri has already qualified for that final - courtesy of his performance in Kuwait in March - and he heads the Kuwaiti contingent, which also includes Meshari Al-Sabti, Meshal Al-Nejadi, Mufeed Mubarak and Essam Al-Nejadi.  

Also in need of a useful finish is Saudi Arabia’s Ahmed Al-Sabban. The Toyota S2000 driver arrived in Syria with numerous spare parts for his two-wheel drive car and has recruited the UAE’s Wael Marjan to read the pace notes.  

Other notable co-driver changes include the return of Sheikh Khalid Al-Qassimi’s former co-driver Nicky Beech to the regional series for the first time since December 2008 with Qatar’s Khalid Al-Suwaidi and the name of Qatar-based Briton Jake Carlin alongside Jaber Al-Marri in a Subaru Impreza.  

Competitive action gets underway with the 12.55km Jupiter stage at Sadad, north of Deir Atiyah, from 9.22hrs on Friday morning. The ceremonial finish is scheduled for 16.32hrs in front of the Sheraton Hotel in Sednaya after an additional 12 special stages.  

This year’s rally will run under the patronage of the Syrian Ministry of Tourism and has support from the Sheraton Ma’aret Sednaya, Orient TV, Runnet, Tafour Gardens, Arabisc Radio, Europcar and Nissan.  

Leading starters:
1. Misfer Al-Marri (QA)/Chris Patterson (GB)                                    Subaru Impreza
2. Sheikh Abdullah Al-Qassimi (UAE)/Steve Lancaster (GB)            Subaru Impreza
3. Nick Georgiou (RL)/Joseph Matar (RL)                                    Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution
            4. Yazeed Al-Rajhi (KSA)/Matthieu Baumel (F)                                    Peugeot 207 S2000
5. Haitham Al-Yousefi (SYR)/Yousef Al-Asmar (HKJ)                        Subaru Impreza
6. Michel Saleh (RL)/Ahmed Ghaziri (RL)                                    Subaru Impreza
7. Mubarak Al-Hajri (QA)/Adel Hussein (QA)                                    Subaru Impreza
8. Sheikh Hamed Bin Eid Al-Thani (QA)/Mohd Arif Yousef (UAE) Subaru Impreza
9. Ahmed Al-Sabban (KSA)/Wael Marjan (UAE)                        Toyota Corolla S2000
10. Ahmad Hamasho (SYR)/Ziad Chehab (RL)                                    Subaru Impreza
11. Jaber Al-Marri (QA)/Jake Carlin (GB)                                     Subaru Impreza
 

SYRIAN RALLY SET FOR CEREMONIAL START IN DAMASCUS ON THURSDAY

Posted: June 10, 2009 4:37 PM

The Syrian International Rally gets underway with the ceremonial start at Abou Rummaneh in downtown Damascus from 6pm on Thursday evening (tomorrow). Over 20 international teams will then tackle 13 timed special stages in the deserts north of the capital on Friday and Saturday.

Competitors and rally officials are based at the Sheraton Hotel in Sednaya and entrants have just completed their permitted two days of monitored reconnaissance of the special stages. Drivers are permitted up to two runs through each timed test at a maximum speed of 60km/h.

“The stages are much better than last year, in the sense that you cannot cut corners as easily and they are well defined,” enthused Saudi Arabia’s Yazeed Al-Rajhi, who is one of the favourites for victory this weekend. “I have a great chance to win my first round of the championship.”

“The route is over 90% the same as last year, but we have made improvements in terms of quality and safety,” said clerk of the course Hani Shaban.

There were three confirmed non-starters from the original entry list prior to official documentation and scrutineering: the Syrian Rally Team entry was reduced to five cars with the withdrawal of Mohammed Hamsho, personal illness forced Jordan’s Ammar Hijazi to withdraw and Bahrain’s Abdulrahman Ghuloom did not make the trip to the Levant.

Competitive action gets underway with the 12.55km Jupiter stage at Sadad, north of Deir Atiyah, from 9.22hrs on Friday morning and teams then head straight into the 24km Hafar special and the 21.95km Baida test. Main service and the regrouping is situated at Deir Atiyah before the three stages are repeated on Friday afternoon from 1pm. Another service stop precedes the final stage of the day, near Yabrud, which is sponsored by the Sheraton Ma’aret Sednaya and gets underway from 3pm.

The first of two runs through the 18.8km Deir Atiyah stage gets the second leg underway from 9.24hrs on Saturday morning. This is followed by a run through the 13.11km Europcar-backed stage at Al Marah from 10.14hrs and the opening Nabk special at 10,42hrs. A service and regroup in Deir Atiyah precedes a repeat run through the three special stages from 12.36hrs. The ceremonial finish is scheduled for 16.32hrs in front of the Sheraton Hotel in Sednaya.

This year’s rally will run under the patronage of the Syrian Ministry of Tourism and has support from the Sheraton Ma’aret Sednaya, Orient TV, Runnet, Tafour Gardens, Arabisc Radio, Europcar and Nissan.

List of Entries

Posted: June 7, 2009 5:40 PM

• Syrian Rally

SYRIAN INTERNATIONAL RALLY IS WIDE OPEN FOR A NEW WINNER THIS WEEKEND

Posted: June 7, 2009 5:37 PM

The name of a brand new driver may well grace the FIA Middle East Rally Championship’s hall of fame for previous event winners after the Syrian International Rally – the 151st event in the history of the regional series – this weekend (June 12th-13th).

  In the absence of Qatar’s Nasser Saleh Al-Attiyah and the UAE’s Sheikh Khalid Al-Qassimi, the final entry list points to the fact that only Lebanon’s Michel Saleh and Sharjah’s Sheikh Abdullah Al-Qassimi have won a round of the championship in the past.  

Saudi Arabia’s Yazeed Al-Rajhi won both the Kuwait and Saudi Sharqia events when they ran as candidate rallies in 2008, but the Riyadh driver has never finished higher than second overall (Kuwait 2009) on an actual MERC round.  

“It makes this weekend’s event that much more wide open and exciting,” insists clerk of the course, Hani Shaban, who has been putting the finishing touches to the special stages and the route format over recent days with his support team from the Syrian Automobile Club. “We have a date clash with the Acropolis Rally in Greece, but we have still received an impressive list of entrant and the competition will be no less intense.”

  A six-strong Syrian Rally Team dominates the competitors’ list, while the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia will be represented by Al-Rajhi and the experienced Ahmed Al-Sabban. Al-Rajhi burst on to the rallying scene a couple of years ago and has made rapid improvements in a short space of time. He has already won the Ha’il Saudi Baja this season and finished second overall in Kuwait.

  He teams up with French co-driver Matthieu Baumel in Syria at the wheel of his impressive Kronos Racing-run Peugeot 207 S2000 and is widely tipped as the favourite to become the first Saudi driver to win a round of the FIA Middle East Rally Championship since Abdullah Bakhashab in the 1990s.

  Al-Sabban has been taking part in the championship since the early 1990s and is persevering with his own Toyota S2000 rally car. The powerful machine has lacked the reliability and development Al-Sabban has needed to be competitive in recent events, but he enjoys rallying in the deserts and the Syrian stages are likely to bring out the best in his Toyota. The UAE’s Wael Marjan will co-drive for the Saudi driver.  

The event will get underway in the centre of downtown Damascus on Thursday (June 11th) with the desert special stages taking place on Friday and Saturday.  

This year’s rally will run under the patronage of the Syrian Ministry of Tourism and has support from the Sheraton Ma’aret Sednaya, Orient TV, Runnet, Tafour Gardens, Arabisc Radio, Europcar and Nissan.

NICK GEORGIOU LOOKS TO GAIN CRUCIAL PIRELLI STAR DRIVER POINTS IN SYRIA
Kuwaits Al-Thafiri and UAEs Al-Mansoori qualified for Dubai final

Posted: June 2, 2009 11:53 AM

Lebanese driver Nick Georgiou will be hoping to earn maximum points in the Pirelli Star Driver category of the FIA Middle East Rally Championship during next weeks Syrian International Rally.

Georgiou lost out on victory in last years prestigious competition on a technicality to Cypriot Nicos Thomas, but Georgiou and Lebanese co-driver Joseph Matar start as favourites to claim their first points in the West Zone section of the competition, which will be fought out over the rounds of the regional series in Syria and Lebanon.

Kuwaits Meshari Al-Thafiri and Abu Dhabis Ahmad Al-Mansoori qualified for the regional final - which will take place alongside the Dubai International Rally at the start of December through the Gulf Zones qualifying round in Kuwait.

We changed the counting rounds for the West Zone after the recent Kuwait International Rally and Syria and Lebanon will now count for West Zone points., said Derek Ledger, FIA Vice President and regional rally commissioner. Nick Georgiou is registered for the West Zone and will start as the favourite to score Pirelli points in Syria.

Five points will be scored by a registered driver for a stage win, down to a single point for fifth position on a special stage. The two drivers who have amassed the most points from the Syrian and Lebanese rounds will qualify for the final.

Mohammed Ben Sulayem, FIA Vice President for Sport and President of the Automobile and Touring Club of the United Arab Emirates (ATCUAE), will supply a new award. This will be presented to the winner by Derek Ledger at the end of the final round of the series in Dubai on Saturday, December 5th.

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The Pirelli Star Driver competition
The Pirelli Star Driver award is a worldwide search for the five best young rally drivers from the 2009 FIA regional championships in the Asia-Pacific, Middle East, Africa and European (including South America) zones.

Each region is holding qualifying events and a final shoot out. The successful drivers will be invited to contest a series of six rounds of the 2010 FIA World Rally Championship in identical Group N cars supplied and serviced under an FIA agreement.

Al-Attiyah and Al-Qassimi set to miss Syrian clash

Posted: May 13, 2009 3:26 PM

Defending FIA Middle East rally champion, Nasser Saleh Al-Attiyah, will not be able to become the first driver in history to claim four outright wins in the Syrian International Rally, when the third round of the regional series gets underway in Sednaya on June 11th 13th.

The Qatari is also tackling the FIA Production World Rally Championship (PWRC) and the recent date change for the Syrian event has caused a direct date clash with the Acropolis Rally in Greece.

Al-Attiyah would be penalised for missing the crucial Greek round of the production series and that has left the door wide open for a potential new winner of the Syrian event. Of the other registered championship contenders, only Sheikh Khalid Al-Qassimi has won the event in the past and the date clash has enabled several of Al-Attiyah's other closest challengers to move back into title contention. Al-Qassimi is also planning to tackle the Greek event in a factory Ford Focus WRC and will miss the Syrian action.

The Qatari would have been bidding for a third successive victory in the newest round of the regional series, which ran for the first time as a candidate event in 2000 and joined the championship in 2001. "There's nothing he can do," said Ken Skidmore of Autotek Motorsport, who will also run Qatar's Misfer Al-Marri and Khalid Al-Suwaidi on the event and lend service support to the Jordanian drivers, Ammar and Faris Hijazi.

"Nasser would have been penalised by the FIA for missing the rally. He has to take part in an agreed number of rounds of the Production Championship."

Al-Attiyah and the retired multiple regional champion Mohammed Ben Sulayem currently have three wins apiece in the all-desert rally, which is being organised by the Syrian Automobile Club and will be based at the Sheraton Ma'aret Sednaya for the five time.

Ben Sulayem is now a vice-president of the FIA and the president of the Automobile & Touring Club of the UAE. He won the candidate round in 2000 with Irish co-driver Ronan Morgan and went on to claim two further wins in 2001 and 2002 with Jordan's Khaled Zakaria and England's John Spiller reading the notes.

The 2003 running of the event was marred by controversy on the final super special stage and victory eventually fell to Cypriot Andreas Tsouloftas. The UAE's Sheikh Khalid Al-Qassimi won the following year on his way to the regional title with the Power Horse World Rally Team and Ulster co-driver Michael Orr.

Al-Attiyah's winning streak began in 2005 and he repeated the feat with Ulster co-driver Chris Patterson in 2007 and 2008. The event was cancelled in 2006. "It's always a nice rally and one which I enjoy very much," enthused Al-Attiyah, who has claimed a maximum 20 championship points from the two rounds of the series so far in Qatar and Kuwait.

"We have a short history in terms of the FIA Middle East Rally Championship," admitted clerk of the course Hani Shaban. "But we have made many improvements and revisions to the event over the last few years and we are now regarded as one of the most popular rounds of the championship. Nasser would have been one of the favourites to win the event for a fourth time, but we hope to have a strong Syrian contingent taking part and we are sure to attract most of the regional championship's registered drivers."

This year's rally will run under the patronage of the Syrian Ministry of Tourism and has initial support from the Sheraton Ma'aret Sednaya, Orient TV, Europcar and Nissan.

Event Website / Details

Posted: January 1, 2009 12:01 AM

• Syrian Rally