Tuesday 29 / April / 2025
Muscat: Jeddah in Saudi Arabia will host for the first time this weekend the third round of Middle East rally championship, where Jeddah stages will be new tracks and fresh for competitors who have never participated in a Saudi Rally before as part of MERC.
Omani participation in this round will be a triple, with Abdullah Al Rawahi and his new English co-driver Ross Whittock driving a Skoda Fabia, while Abdullah Al Zubair and his co-driver Taha Soomar will be driving a Subaru Impreza (N14), and Zakaria Al Amri and his co-driver Mohammed Al Mazrui will be driving a Subaru Impreza (N14) with the aim of continuing to lead group ( N) category of the championship.
6 stages, 3 of which will be held on Friday and will be repeated twice, while on Saturday there will be 3 new stages near Jeddah and they will also be repeated twice. The competition will be strong for the lead in the rally between the current championship leader, Qatari driver Nasser Al-Attiyah, the young driver Abdullah Al-Rawahi, Qatari Abdulaziz Al-Kuwari, and the competitors.
As these stages are new to all competitors, everyone will be keen to register their names on the honor roll of the first place winners of the first rally in Saudi Arabia in the Middle East rally calendar. The rally may witness the birth of a new name to win the rally, although all the nominations do not leave out the well-known names, most known Nasser Al-Attiyah, Abdullah Al-Rawahi, Abdulaziz Al-Kuwari and the Finnish driver Juho Hanninen.
Al Rawahi said, "This is a round being held for the first time and there are new stages for all of us. We must be ready for everything, especially since I am participating with a new co-driver and I expect stiff competition from the big names, especially Nasser Al Attiyah. We must prepare intensively because the rally is unknown and we have not participated in it before. Our goal and target now is to compete for the lead and collect the most number of points.
Competitor Abdullah Al Zubair is also participating with his Navigator Taha Soomar, aiming to improve his position in the overall ( N ) category classification. Al Zubair had a strong race in the 2025 Oman International Rally in Suhar, while he faced a car problem in the Qatar International Rally, which he lost many points on his way to the lead.
Zakaria AlAmri and Mohamed Almazrui both looking forward to enhance their lead of the group and hoping to end the rally with top points.
