Defending champions begin Desert Challenge bids

Abu Dhabi: Trying to pick a winner in the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge is as difficult as the event itself, and that fact will not be lost on Jean-Louis Schlesser and Marc Coma as they chase another place in the record books over the next five days.

Schlesser, defending champion in the cars category, and Coma, who has dominated the bikes class for the last four years, have each scored six victories overall in the UAE’s classic cross-country rally and both fancy their chances of adding another this week.

The Frenchman and Spaniard know, however, that the task ahead of them is tough, with plenty of powerful international competition in a starting line-up of 49 drivers and 51 riders, plus a multitude of potential complications awaiting along the 2,000km route.

This begins in earnest on Sunday morning with the start of the first of five tests, the 299km Abu Dhabi Motorsport Management Stage.

Of the 49 drivers tackling the 23rd edition of the Desert Challenge, few foreigners can rival 64-year-old Schlesser for the way he is able to adapt to UAE conditions, something he has been doing with great success ever since his first win in the event back in 1994. He is back once more with Russian co-driver Konstantin Zhilstov alongside him in his Sonangol Buggy.

“Jean-Louis is a great friend of the Desert Challenge and a great character, and we’re always pleased to welcome him back to the UAE, where he has enjoyed so much success,” said Dr. Mohammad Bin Sulayem, President of the Automobile and Touring Club of the UAE (ATCUAE), the rally organisers, and founder of the event.

“Can he win it again? I know he thinks he can. While he has a lot of much younger drivers out to beat him, sometimes there is no substitute for experience and he has more of that than anyone else in the rally.”

The event is the second round of the FIA World Cup for Cross Country Rallies, and Schlesser’s biggest rivals this week could again be the two men who finished ahead of him in Italy’s opening round last month, Brazilian Reinaldo Varela in a Mitsubishi Pajero and Poland’s Krystof Holowczyk in a Mini.

Another potential winner is Spanish driver Nani Roma, who was one of the leading prospects in 2007 but was forced to retire because of illness.

The 2013 Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge is taking place under the patronage of HH Shaikh Hamdan Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the Ruler’s Representative in the Western Region.