Lusail: This weekend’s Qatar International Baja will go a long way to determining the outcome of the various racing categories in both the FIA World and Middle East Baja Cups.
The Lusail-based event hosts the penultimate rounds of both championships with the Dubai International Baja set to round off the respective race calendars the following weekend (November 5-8).
The Drivers’ and Navigators’ Championships in the FIA World Baja Cup are set for a barn-storming conclusion with four drivers present in Qatar in with a very realistic chance of claiming the silverware.
Saudi driver Dania Akeel leads the way on 273 points but the Toyota driver has already scored from her permitted six events and sits on the sidelines for the season’s finale, as Mitchel van den Brink, Francisco Barreto, Lionel Baud and Saood Variawa battle it out for the title. Van den Brink, Barreto and Variawa have posted four scores so far to the five notched up by Baud.
Van den Brink is the runaway leader of the Challenger category as well and heads to Lusail in his South Racing Can-Am with 265 points and a seven-point cushion over Barreto, the winner in both Italy and Portugal this year in an SVR Toyota.
Baud is the outsider and trails Van den Brink by 18 points but Jordan Baja winner Variawa is 33 points adrift. Barreto, Baud and Variawa will also battle it out to overhaul Akeel in the Ultimate class.
Akeel’s partner Sébastien Delaunay leads the way in the Navigators’ Championship, but is also absent as Bart van Heun, Paulo Fiúza and Lucie Baud tussle for supremacy. Lionel Baud leads the way from Hamed Al-Wahaibi in the Master driver category.
The QMMF Team’s Abdulaziz Al-Kuwari is a distant third in the rankings.
Neither SSV and Junior Driver leader Hedda Hosås nor Emirati Mansour Al-Helai have made the trip to Qatar and that has opened the door for Argentina-based Fernando Alvarez to push on for glory.
Al-Mashna Al-Shammeri has already posted six scores this season and amassed 226 points in the Stock category.
The outcome of the FIA Middle East Baja Cup looks to be a lot more straightforward. Nasser Saleh Al-Attiyah and Max Delfino have already taken wins in Saudi Arabia and Jordan this year and have 17-point leads in their respective championships over the absent Yasir Seaidan and Xavier Flick.
Al-Attiyah will be one of the favourites for outright success in an MD Optimus Rallye – he has won the Qatar event in its various guises on a dozen occasions since 2004.
Talented young Qatari Mohammed Al-Marri leads the Junior rankings, holds third in the Drivers’ Championship and has a 58-point lead in the SSV class.
He teams up with Pierre Delorme on this occasion, knowing that a strong finish in Qatar will be enough to see off the challenge from the likes of Hamad Al-Harbi, Maha Al-Hamali and Mohammed Al-Atteya to claim SSV success.
Seaidan’s absence has left the door slightly ajar for Dubai-based Briton David Mabbs and his navigator Dave McBride to make a late push for Challenger honours.
Mabbs trails Seaidan by 68 points and faces strong Qatari competition for points this weekend. He is also in contention for the regional Master Driver title, but trails the absent Miroslav Zapletal by 37 points.
Today will be a day of pre-event preparations in the service park for teams and crews, while staff at the Qatar Motor and Motorcycle Federation (QMMF) put the finishing touches to event logistics before administration checks, scrutineering and the pre-event press conference take centre stage at the Lusail International Circuit tomorrow.
