QMMF Gears Up For 50Th Anniversary As Teams Make Final Preparations Ahead Of Qatar International Rally

Lusail: This weekend's Qatar International Rally is the second round of the FIA Middle East Rally Championship (MERC) but it is also the 50th anniversary of the first ever event to be held in 1975.

From that small acorn, the joint third oldest rally in the Middle East – the Rally of Lebanon and Cyprus ran for the first time in 1968 and 1970 and Kuwait also hosted a rally in 1975 - has become one of the most popular events in the whole of Asia.

Nasser Saleh Al Attiyah will be trying to break his own record of 17 victories on his home rally this weekend. The list of previous winners is an impressive one: current FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem won on nine occasions, local legend Saeed Al Hajri claimed six wins and the defending MERC champion, Abdulaziz Al Kuwari, prevailed back in 2012.

As far as co-drivers are concerned, Irishman Ronan Morgan holds the record with eight wins, Mathieu Baumel and Chris Patterson partnered Al Attiyah to six and five successes apiece and Giovanni Bernacchini claimed four victories with the Qatari between 2010 and 2014.

File photo of Nasser Saleh Al Attiyah and Mathieu Baumel celebrate after winning the 2015 Qatar International Rally.

Two of the most surprising wins came with victories for Group N/MERC2 cars. Oman's Nizar Al Shanfari teamed up with the late Tom Steele to stun his rivals with victory in a Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution V in 1999 and Rashid Al Naimi and Hugo Magalhães secured a shock win in 2017 with a Subaru Impreza WRX STi.

The Qatar Motor and Motorcycle Federation (QMMF) will be celebrating 50 years this weekend, as 29 teams and competitors from 19 countries make their final preparations for the weekend's action at the service park within the Lusail International Circuit. Twenty-one of those teams are now registered for 2025 MERC points.

Al Attiyah began competing in off-road events from 1989 and 1990 and then returned to the sportwith a vengeance in 2003. He won his first Qatar International Rally that year with British co-driver Steve Lancaster in a Subaru Impreza WRC and has since celebrated victory in Qatar with four additional car manufacturers and as many new co-drivers.

Speaking at Lusail yesterday, Al Attiyah said:“I remember when Saeed (Al Hajri) and Mohammed (Ben Sulayem), Jaber Al Marri, Mamdouh (Khayat) and many others were competing. We were watching. Then, in 1990, I did the first Qatar International with a Toyota Celica from Mohammed. I was leading all the way until we broke the rear diff. People started to say that this was the new Saeed coming. It was nice memories.

“I stopped for 10 years and came back to win for the first time in 2003. I raced the full championship with a WRC Prodrive Subaru and we won the championship for the first time. Then, we started to make our own history."

Bernacchini is working as team co-ordinator for the 1993 event winner Nasser Khalifa Al Atya this weekend.

The Italian said:“This rally is one of the best in the Middle East with typical desert conditions. I won here four times. That was good memories but I didn't just make this rally with Nasser Saleh. I made it with Nasser Khalifa. My first rally here was actually in 2009 with Faisal Al Attiyah, so almost with all the family I made this rally."

Nasser bin Talibe Al Marri has been following the Qatar International Rally since he was a young boy and has a regular blog on social media portraying archive of the MERC. Speaking at Lusail, the Qatari said:“I remember my first event was in 1976. The start was at the Khalifa Stadium. I was around six-years-old and I came with my brother. Then I came again in '78 and then in 1983."

The 50th anniversary rally is being held under the chairmanship of QMMF President Abdulrahman Al Mannai, senior committee member Abdulrazaq Al Kuwari and the QMMF's Executive Director Amro Al Hamad.

Today, competitors will carry out a full reconnaissance of the six different gravel special stages in the northern desert. Vehicles will also pass technical scrutineering checks at the Lusail International Circuit.

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