Dubai: Emirati rider Mohammad Al Beloushi finished eighth in this season’s FIM Cross Country Rally World Championship despite a retirement in the final round of the six-stage series in Morocco at the weekend.
Al Beloushi, 35, was forced to sit out on the last day of the Oilibya Rally after having suffered a cracked rib following a crash on stage four.
Nevertheless, eighth is the highest an Emirati has ever finished in the series, bettering his own best finish of 12th last season. To achieve this Al Beloushi finished sixth, tenth, third and eighth in the rallies of the UAE, Qatar, Egypt and Chile, respectively this year. Morocco will register as a retirement, while he also sat out round four of the series in Italy after failing to generate enough finances for the ride through sponsorship.
“It’s really too bad to have to retire like this after so much work done by all my team this year,” he said. “I still can’t believe we made it to the final round of the championship with so much effort and we have achieved so much.
“It’s always disappointing not to be allowed to race, especially because I feel strong and really wanted to complete the rally. Yes I have a bit of pain from the cracked rib, but it’s the heart that hurts more for not being able to bring my [UAE] flag to the finish line.”
The championship is considered one of the most challenging series in motorsport, particularly as riders are exposed to a full spectrum of extreme terrain and climate.
Mahir Badri, the managing director of Sports 2, who handle Al Beloushi, said: “Our aim is to do the full championship in 2016 and we will do anything in our power to make it happen.
“Mohammad takes a day off before getting back to his training programme and we never stop. Our planning for the next season already started. We feel huge pride in what we do and there is an honour difficult to explain in being able to represent our country in a world class championship in foreign countries and also in seeing people in these faraway lands recognising our UAE’s flag and the talent Mohammad has,” he added.