Hamid clinches third spot

FUJAIRAH: Oman rally driver Hamid al Qasimi claimed a podium finish with third spot in the final round of the UAE Local Rally Championship in Fujairah on Friday. Faisal al Rashidi took fourth spot in the championship but another Omani driver Khalid Soomar had to quit after technical problems in the breaking system and jumping unit. The rally consisted of 7 stages in which 2 stages were cancelled by the organising committee after complaints from the drivers over the rough track with many rocks on the road.

Stage one was Fujairah Dam for about 8km, where Hamid al Qasimi finished the stage at 6.01.524 minutes, Al Rashidi finished the stage in 6.03.436 minutes and the stage was won by Sheikh Abdullah al Qasimi on Ford Fiesta S 2000.

Khalid Soomar was working well at this stage trying to compete with top three as he recorded the fastest time among Omani drivers but started to have some technical issues in his Mitsubishi EVo 7.

Stage No. 2 in Farfar was cancelled by the organising committee for safety reasons and all the rally cars has shifted their ways to the third in Mamdoh for 8km in very rough road, where Soomar had a puncture reaching the end of the stage by 7 minutes comparing to his compatriots.

After finishing the second stage, rally cars took their way to the maintenance yard near Fujairah beach for the temporary service and short maintenance, where fast job has been done by the technical teams before the cars has headed again to the Dam stage where the third stage was operating.

Hamid al Qasimi and his co- driver Mohammed al Mazrouri has finished stage three of the rally in 5.47.753 minutes, while Fasial al Rashidi and his Navigator Waleed al Rashidi ended the stage in 5.47.517 minutes faster by less than second from Al Qasimi, Khalid Soomar and his co-driver Issa Al Wardi finished the stage in a better time.

Stage four was the end of the journey for rally driver Khalid Soomar where his car lost the power of the breaks and a broken jumping ended the champion’s dream to be on the top three in this rally.

Khalid Soomar, who won the third place in last rally in Al Dhaid, was aiming to reach top three again, but it did not happen as planned.

He said: “Well it is my bad luck not to finish this rally but this can happen at any time in the rallies and I am happy for Hamid and Faisal to end the rally with good results”.

Hamid al Qasimi, who finished third overall in 2016 championship and second in Group N, said: “Well, I am very happy to end the rally and the championship with this result. It was the result of a hard work and I would like to thank Sheikh Abdullah al Qasimi for his support to all Omani drivers participated in this championship and my sons who were with me all the time.”

Faisal al Rashidi was glad to end the rally championship in fourth place overall and third in Group N and he was thankful to his family and the sponsors Insight Information Technology company and Inspection Services Equipment Oil Fields company for their support.

Faisal said: “Really we had good time in UAE rally championship despite we had travelled from Muscat to attend the rally. But there is no other solution in our hand as our local rally is not happening.”