KUWAIT INTERNATIONAL RALLY, March 10th-12th, 2011
FIA Middle East Rally Championship, round two
For immediate release
Thursday, February 17th, 2010
KUWAIT INTERNATIONAL AUTOMOBILE CLUB (KIAC) ANNOUNCES REVISED 2011 KUWAIT RALLY
· Start and finish planned at Holiday Inn Salmiya Hotel
· KIAC teams up with Kuwait Quarter Mile Club to run rally
· New organising committee set to run 2011 Kuwait Rally
KUWAIT CITY (Kuwait): The Kuwait International Automobile Club (KIAC) has announced initial details of the 2011 Kuwait International Rally, the second round of this year’s FIA Middle East Rally Championship (MERC), which takes place on March 10-12.
Kuwait’s premier off-road motor sport event will be organised with the cooperation of the KIAC, the ASN of Kuwait, and the newly-founded Kuwait Quarter Mile Club this year and has a new organising committee and team of senior officials working under the chairmanship of Sheikh Duaj Fahad Al-Duaj Al-Sabah, chairman of the higher organising committee of the KIAC.
The 2011 Kuwait International Rally will run under the patronage of His Excellency Sheikh Ahmad Fahad Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, the deputy prime minister for development affairs and chairman of the Kuwait Olympic Committee
It will be based at the Kuwait Shooting Club, as was the case for the previous three years. Crews will be permitted to carry out monitored reconnaissance of the special stages on Tuesday, March 8th and Wednesday, March 9th.
Scrutineering will take place at the Subaru workshop in the Al-Rai industrial area on Thursday, March 10th and the two days of competitive action in the Kuwait desert will take place on Friday, March 11th and Saturday, March 12th.
There will be a ceremonial start outside the Holiday Inn Salmiya Hotel on Gulf Street in Kuwait City from 18.00hrs on Thursday, March 10th and the finish podium is scheduled at the same location for 17.00hrs on Saturday, March 12th.
“Walid Mihyar will work as our clerk of the course again this year and is finalising the route and the timetable, as everyone puts in an extraordinary effort to arrange the rally in record time,” said Fuad Abu-Arja, vice-chairman of the organising committee.
“We have moved the base for the rally from Jahra into Kuwait City and this is where the start and finish podium will be located on Gulf Street. There will also be two new extraordinary special stages – which we hope will be a dream for the drivers – and three stages the same as last year.”
The KIAC was the first club to introduce motor sport to Kuwait and the region in the early 1970s and this year’s Kuwait International Rally marks the club’s return to organising motor sport events. The KIAC organised a round of the MERC from the start of the regional series in 1984 until the Iraq invasion in 1990 and two subsequent rallies after the liberation in 1995 and 1996.
The closing date for entries is Saturday, February 26th. Further details and entry concessions are available from the Kuwait International Automobile Club (KIAC), PO Box 2100, Safat, 13021 Kuwait, Tel: + (965) 2482 7521 and 253 55522, Fax: + (965) 2484 1433, E-mail: kiac@kiac.com.kw or abuarja@kiac.com.kw
Ends
For further media information:
Neil Perkins, International Media Liaison, 2011 Kuwait International Rally, NDP Publicity Services, Mobile: + 44 7831 123153, E-mail: ndppublicity@googlemail.com, www.ndp-publicity.com (press releases)