2010 Syrian International Rally
FIA Middle East Rally Championship, round 6 of 8
For immediate release
Friday, September 10th, 2010
SYRIAN EVENT ORGANISERS ANNOUNCE
SIXTH ROUND OF REGIONAL RALLY SERIES
New special stages planned for Syrian round of MERC
DAMASCUS (Syria): Officials at the Syrian Automobile Club in Damascus have confirmed that the 10th Syrian International Rally, the sixth round of the FIA Middle East Rally Championship, will take place on October 7th-9th, 2010.
There has been a break of over four months since the last round of the eight-event series in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Syrian round will follow the forthcoming Rally of Lebanon in mid-September. Syrian event officials are currently putting the finishing touches to a revised route of graded desert special stages.
The event will be based at Sednaya, north of Damascus, for a sixth time and will start in downtown Damascus on Thursday, October 7th, with two legs of special stages taking place on Friday, October 8th and Saturday, October 9th. The rally will run under the patronage of the Syrian Ministry of Tourism.
“We are in the process of finalising a revised route at the moment,” said clerk of the course Hani Shaban. “Some of the stages from last year have been scrapped and we have replaced them with new, more technical stages across the desert.”
The Syrian Rally ran for the first time in 2000 as a candidate event and has been a popular round of the regional championship ever since, although it was cancelled in 2006 because of regional unrest. The UAE’s Mohammed Ben Sulayem won the candidate event and the first two rallies in the MERC.
Cypriot Andreas Tsouloftas emerged victorious from a dramatic rally in 2003 and Sheikh Khalid Al-Qassimi clinched victory the following year on his way to the regional title. Qatar’s Nasser Saleh Al-Attiyah sealed the first of his three wins in 2005 and Saudi Arabia’s Yazeed Al-Rajhi is the defending champion after claiming victory with French co-driver Matthieu Baumel in 2009.
Regulations and further information about entries and concessions are available from the Syrian Automobile Club, PO Box 36256, Damascus, Syria, Tel: 963 11 2323706, Fax: + 963 11 2312785, Website: www.syrianrally.com.
Ends
For further media information:
Imad Sankar, Arabic Press Officer, Tel: + 963 11 232 3706, Fax: + 963 11 231 2785, Mobile: + 963 944811129
or
Neil Perkins, NDP Publicity Services, International Press Officer, 2010 Syrian International Rally, Tel/Fax: + (44) 1952 825001, UK Mobile: + 44 7831 123153 E-mail: ndppublicity@googlemail.com
www.ndp-publicity.com (press releases)
www.syrianrally.com
www.merc-fia.com