Al Mutaiwee returns to cross-country rally

One of UAE’s most successful off-road drivers, Khalifa Al Mutaiwee, announced a dramatic return to cross-country rallying, revealing he will drive for Fazza Rally Team in the 2012 FIA World Cup for Cross-Country Rallies championship. Al Mutaiwee, the 2004 FIA World Cup champion, told a news conference in Beirut, Lebanon, on Friday that he would get behind the wheels of a Mini All4 Racing, also confirming that he has renewed his partnership with twice former Dakar-winning co-driver Andreas Schulz and Sven Quandt’s X-Raid team in Germany. Prior to yesterday’s announcement, Al Mutaiwee was considered one of the leading off-road drivers in the world at the start of the century, and was part of the Dubai Victory Rally Team that took the FIA Middle East Rally Championship by storm in the 1990s. Al Mutaiwee has to his credit clinched two Middle East Rally Championship victories, achieved early in his career, apart from numerous top five finishes in rounds of the FIA World Cup for Cross-Country Rallies, and winning the prestigious 1000 Dunes Rally, organised by the Emirates Motor Sports Federation, on four occasions. The talented driver, who suddenly stopped rallying for unexplained reasons, was very much an integral part of the then Marlboro Challenge, which was subsequently remained as the Desert Challenge and in its current form is known as the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge. Al Mutaiwee has also flirted with the Dakar Rally in 2003, at a time when the event was run in North Africa, and yesterday said he was toying with the idea of returning to the Dakar, now run entirely in South America, for the 2013 edition. Al Mutaiwee confirmed that his 2012 off-road programme will begin with the Italian Baja from March 15-18 and include the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge at the end of March, the new Sealine Cross-Country Rally in Qatar in April, May’s Tunisia Rally, the Baja Spain, Baja Poland, the punishing Egypt Rally and the Baja Portalegre in Portugal at the start of November. “I have been in training over the previous few months to get myself ready as best I can,” said Al Mutaiwee. “I am delighted to have Andreas back on board with me. I chose Lebanon to announce my programme because of the country’s history and knowledge of motor sport. “I am not building my expectations too high at this stage. It is a long time since I took part at the top level and I will need to get back into everything before we start looking for top results.” Tariq Al Warshaw will work as Al Mutaiwee’s team co-ordinator for the 2012 programme and act as liaison with the Trebur-based X-raid team, which clinched outright victory in this year’s Dakar Rally with the Mini All4 Racing.