Dubai: No less than 33 teams have entered next month's Bank Muscat Rally Oman - the third round of the 2006 FIA Middle East Rally Championship.
The event is being organised by Intevents under the patronage of the Ministry of Tourism, with sporting elements handled by the Oman Automobile Association, the FIA and the Ministry of Sports Affairs.
The event will be held on April 5-7 with support from Gulf Air and Intercontinental Hotels.
"We are delighted at the response we have received from teams keen to take part in Oman's most important motor sport event," said Colonel Salim Bin Khalifa Al Maskary of the Oman Automobile Association. "Not only do we have all the regular championship contenders on the entry list, but we have several up and coming young drivers and a strong participation from Oman." Leading the strong contingent of entries from the Sultanate of Oman will be the former FIA Middle East Group N rally champion Nizar Al Shanfari in his Bank Muscat Rally Team Subaru Impreza WRX STi. Al Shanfari tackled the opening two rounds of this year's series in Al Ain and Qatar with Britain's Brian Hardie, who now resides in northern Cyprus.
RALLY
Georgiou to make his debut in Oman
Making his international rallying debut in Bank Muscat Rally Oman will be 23-year-old Nicholi Georgiou, the son of veteran rally driver Tony Georgiou, who was one of the most competitive drivers in the region back in the 1980s and early 1990s. Tony has ventured out of retirement to tackle several recent Oman rallies, but this event will mark the first time that his son takes to the driving seat. Father and son combinations have achieved considerable success in recent seasons in international rallying. Both Colin and Alister McRae followed their father Jimmy - a multiple British Rally Champion - on to the special stages and, more recently, Matthew Wilson has earned a seat in a factory Ford in father Malcolm's Ford World Rally Team.
