Sports Reporter/Doha
The Basil Salem Al-Sabah Motor Racing Club (BMRC) and the Kuwait International Automobile Club (KIAC) have announced a 21-car entry and competitors from 10 countries for the 2015 Kuwait Rally, which takes place on March 12-14.
The entry list was released today (Thursday) for the second round of the FIA Middle East Rally Championship that will run under the chairmanship of Sheikh Athbi Nayef Jaber al-Ahmad al-Sabah.
Defending regional champion Nasser Saleh al-Attiyah and his French co-driver Matthieu Baumel top the entry in their Ford Fiesta RRC, but the series leaders face fierce competition for the second time in just over a month from the likes of Abu Dhabi Racing’s Sheikh Khalid al-Qassimi, Saudi Arabia’s Yazeed al-Rajhi and fellow Qatari Abdulaziz al-Kuwari.
The host State of Kuwait will be strongly represented: Masoud al-Saleh, Salah bin Eidan and Meshari al-Thafiri lead the home challenge on an entry list that also includes locally-based drivers, Dawood al-Gharabally, Saleh Ali, Kuwait-based Lebanese Elie Chachati and Mohammed al-Thafiri.
Abu Dhabi Racing’s junior drivers missed the opening round in Qatar last month and make their first appearance of the season in a quartet of two-wheel drive Citroën DS3s. Mohamed al-Mutawaa, Mohamed al-Sahlawi, Mansoor Belhelai and Saeed bin Towq drive the four cars with Stephen McAuley, Craig Parry, Khalid al-Kendi and Allan Harryman reading the notes.
The event also marks the return to MERC action of the Lebanese veteran Michel Saleh. Saleh was competing when rallying was established in the Gulf region in the late 1970s and was one of the first ever supporters of rallying in Kuwait. He teams up with Ahmed al-Ghaziri and will drive a Subaru Impreza.
Al-Attiyah and al-Kuwari will be supported by fellow Qataris, Khalid al-Suwaidi, Khalifa al-Attiyah, Abdullah al-Kuwari and Rashid al-Naimi.
Germany’s Edith Weiss completes the driver entry, although Irish, Slovenian and Greek navigators add that little extra international flavour to an event that gets underway with the first of two runs through the Nuwaiseeb stage on Friday, March 13. The event is scheduled to finish on Saturday, March 14.
