Dubai: The UAE's Shaikh Suhail Bin Khalifa Al Maktoum will begin his challenge for honours in this year's FIA Middle East Rally Championship, when he tackles the 2006 ADNOC Distribution UAE International Rally.
The rally is being held under the patronage of Lieutenant General Shaikh Saif Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the Minister of Interior, on January 25-27.
Shaikh Suhail is one of the fastest and most talented drivers in the Middle East and finished third overall in last year's regional series at the wheel of a Subaru Impreza WRX STi.
This season the Dubai-based driver is taking his challenge for a maiden title more seriously and will wheel out a new Subaru at the start of the two-day event through the Abu Dhabi deserts around Sweihan and Al Ain. A former winner of the Dubai International Rally and a great rival of the 14-times Middle East champion Mohammad Bin Sulayem, as part of the Victory Rally Team in the 1990s, Shaikh Suhail returned to the special stages two years ago and immediately made an impact.
Last year he shadowed eventual champion Qatar's Nasser Saleh Al Attiyah and the 2003 champion Shaikh Khalid Al Qasimi on several rallies and exchanged fastest stage times with the other two front-runners on numerous occasions. Shaikh Suhail will be co-driven by Wael Marjan.
Meanwhile, Dubai-based Lebanese driver Michel Saleh and co-driver Ziad Chehab are relishing the start of the new season and will be hoping for better luck in 2006.
Saleh is a former Gulf regional champion and has been rallying in the area since the series first began. "It doesn't seem long since we rounded off last year with the event in Dubai and now we are preparing for another exciting season," said Bin Sulayem, Chairman of the Automobile Touring Club of the United Arab Emirates.
