Al-Attiyah to compete in the Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge Middle East with QMMF Team

By Sports Reporter/Doha

The fourth round of Porsche GT3 CUP Challenge Middle East is back to the Qatari track this weekend. In this round of the Porsche GT3 CUP Challenge Middle East, there will be a new team taking part in this championship, QMMF Team with the 2011 Dakar Rally winner and nine-time Middle East Rally Champion driver, Nasser Saleh al-Attiyah.

QMMF Team will also participate in the two coming rounds, in Dubai and Bahrain with al-Attiyah as the driver.

“I am really happy for this opportunity that Qatar Motor and Motorcycle Federation has given to me to participate in this Championship where the level and the competition is really high. I really look forward to race this weekend and although this car is completely different to a Rally car I can learn a lot from this experience. I have tested the car yesterday and today at the Losail track and even this field is different than what I am used to, I know I can make a good performance and thanks to Nasser Khalifa al-Attiyah for his support, he has really make a good start for this event and have a proper team for QMMF,” the driver al-Attiyah said after practice yesterday.

In the previous round, also at Losail International Circuit, the leader of the championship, Clemens Schmid won Race 1 ahead of Ashkanani. In the race 2, under wet conditions, the victory was for the Saudi Falcons driver Jeffrey Schmidt. Clemens from Al Nabooda Racing is leading the championship with 146 points and Zaid Ashkanani from BuzaidGT is in second place with 119 points. The Saudi Falcons driver Abdulaziz AlFaisal is in third place with 112 points.

Regarding the third round of Qatar Challenge,  David Walker is leading with 48 points with his Honda car. The Canadian driver Peter DeVido is in second place with 35 points and Pavel Nedobity from Czec Republic is in third place with 30 points.

 For first time, the Radical Middle East Cup arrives to Qatar and the fifth event of this series will be at Losail International Circuit. Team Principal Carl Rolaston said that this is the first time that Radical MEC takes place at Losail. “We are very grateful to the Qatar Motorcycle and Motorsport Federation, who have been extremely helpful in making this happen,” added Rolaston. 

‘We saw great and challenging races in the previous round of Porsche GT3 and Qatar Challenge at Losail. For this weekend, there will be more fun and excitment added with this new championship, Radical Middle East Cup, so we are really looking forward to see the three championships running together for first time. Also, we are very happy to have the QMMF Team with the local hero Nasser Saleh al-Attiyah to take part in this prestigious championship and support him in this race and the rest of the season,” stated Nasser Khalifa al-Attiyah, QMMF President.

 Grandstand is open to the public with free entrance.