<strong>Nissan</strong> Sweeps Top Placings in Tal El Saad Whilst there are plenty of motorsports activities taking place in the UAE, there are some events that are completely dominated by the local populace, most of whom place their trust in one brand – <strong>Nissan</strong>. 28
Now, one would say that this is taking things a bit too far as how come one make of vehicle be so enduring to the competitors and by the way, what is this form of motorsport that makes for a frenzied dash in a <strong>Nissan</strong> to participate in? Well, it is hill climbing, only here in the Arabian peninsula the connotations change to dune climbing and the most famous of them all are the Tal Moreeb in Liwa, Abu Dhabi and the Tal El Saad in Al Ain – both in the UAE. There is one big dune in Saudi Arabia which is also huge, but it is the aforementioned dunes that all exponents of this very technical and exciting sport want to conquer. Think of dune climbing as a different form of drag racing wherein instead of racing on a flat track, one speeds up a dune having an angle of 38 degrees (checked by GPS). Total length of the track depends on basically how big the dune is, but Tal El Saad (our point of focus here in this article) is about 200 metres long with 65 metres left as braking distance. Even then 135 metres going vertically is nothing to scoff at as the competitors found out at the Red Bull Reach the Top event that took place in earlier in April this year. Held under the patronage of HH Sheikh Mansour Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, this event saw a score of mainly Emiratis taking part. with the most MOTOR SPORTS popular wheels of choice being the effervescent <strong>Nissan</strong> Patrol. Around 15,000 UAE and foreign spectators came to applaud the 21 winners of the quad and 4WDs categories. Sheikh Ali Sultan Al Khatiri, Mr. Abdallah Al Qobaissi, vice-president of the organizing committee, and Mr. Mohammed Bin Barrak Al Zahiri from Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority distributed the prizes. He cherry on the cake for the winner in the car category was a pristine white <strong>Nissan</strong> Patrol, courtesy of Al Massoud Automobiles, the <strong>Nissan</strong> dealer in Abu Dhabi and Al Ain. That the racing was fast and furious was an understatement as the competitors place a lot of emphasis on doing well as it reflects on their standing in the local tuners’ market. Racers and indeed winners are accorded cult status and much was expected of last year’s winner Hamdan Al Mazroui but sadly, the Tal El Saad is a great leveler of man and machine and he failed in his quest to take top honours. Fastest man on the night was UAE’s Bader Ibrahim Ahli from the Formula team. He darted up Tell El Saad in his 8-cylinder Patrol in a scorching time of 8.426 seconds. He was followed in second position by Ibrahim Abbas Al Balouchi with 9.006 seconds, with Abdallah Al Hamli taking third with a time of 9.032 seconds. In the 6-cylinder category, Hamed Mohammed Jassem Al Mouni ranked first with 12.066 seconds, followed by second placed Thani Khalifa Al Muhairi (12.734 seconds) and Waleed Salah Ibrahim with 12.394 seconds rounding off the podium. As for the standard car category, Jassim Mohammed Al Ali took the top spot after scoring a good time of 9.721 seconds. He was followed by Saeed Al Mazroui in second position with 10.483 seconds, while Saeed Bou Samarah finished third in a time of 10.903 seconds. Surprisingly enough, Bader Ahli did not only win the title of 2006 UAE 4WD Champion of the Red Bull Reach the Top competition held in Tal El Saad, Al Ain, but he was also awarded the championship shield of all car classes, after the points he had previously scored in the car championships held in Tal Moreeb, Liwa and Tal Awafi, Ras Al Khaimah were added up with the points of this championship. Ahli expressed his joy of winning the title and said: “I am extremely happy, especially that I am crowned twice tonight: the first time because I scored the best time in Tal El Saad and the second time because I scored the highest number of points at the end of the season that started in Liwa and Awafi then ended in Tal El Saad”. “After my first trial, I realized that the drivers were unable to beat it, so I decided to wait before making the second one. I was in fact waiting for Al Mazroui in particular because I knew he was a strong competitor. However, I was lucky and he was not”, he explained. 47 cars raced yesterday: 13 in the 6-cylinder standard category, 14 in the 6-cylinder full category and 20 in the 8-cylinder category. This number was more than sufficient to offer the spectators the expected excitement and enthusiasm. The wait grew longer and longer and reached its peak when the car of Saudi driver Ahmad Al Chaqawi rolled over after crossing the finish line. However, he came out of the accident unharmed and waved to put the audience’s mind at ease. All in all, it was a good evening of racing and it is but a tribute to the strength of the <strong>Nissan</strong> Patrol as it proved to not just be the fastest vehicle up Tal El Saad but the most preferred among the competitors. 2006 29
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