Dubai: David Mabbs and Sean Gaugain are the early leaders of the newly launched 2013-14 UAE Desert Championship as an entry list of more than 80 cars, bikes, buggys, and quads fought over 120 kilometres of Dubai desert at the weekend in the Baja-style rally.
Contesting the cars and buggys category in the first of four rounds making up the 2013-14 series, Mabbs piloted a FJ Cruiser to victory, taking a commanding lead of five minutes and 35 seconds over Emirati Ahmad Al Maqoodi, who is in second place in a Polaris RZR XP.
In the bikes category, Gaugain outclassed a strong line-up of more than 50 riders on a Kawasaki 450 to finish 2min 27sec ahead of fellow South African Mark Grams, while in the quads class, Dutch rider Sebastian Hussaini leads Emiratis Mohammad Shamshi and Nasser Al Ali Abdullah.
Organised by the Emirates Motor Sport Federation with TAG Heuer Middle East the official timekeeper and founding partner, the 2013-14 UAE Desert Championship has been introduced to safeguard the future of rallying on a national basis.
The first round of the 2013-14 UAE Desert Championship was run as a short-track rally with a marked route across the Al Yufrah 2 desert area south of Dubai. The 15km circuit was one of three event formats to be used for the championship.
Some rounds will consist of medium-track events run over five laps of approximately 40km each, while others will be long-track events of around 200km, both requiring GPS for navigation.
The longer events will provide good preparation for those competitors contesting the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge, which marks its 24th edition next April as a round of both the FIA World Cup for Cross Country Rallies and the FIM Cross-Country Rallies World Championship. The next round of the UAE Desert Championship will take place on November 15.
