Exclusive: Rallycross Arrives in the UAE
Tried everything else? Now you can go rallycross racing in Umm Al Quwain
By Noel Ebdon
Until the Dubai Autodrome opened about a decade ago, if you wanted to get your racing jollies in the UAE, you needed to go rallying. Ever since, despite FIA GT racing, the Dubai 24 Hour and the F1 circus turning up, rallying has remained one of the most popular and most entered forms of racing.
So it’s probably inevitable that at some point someone would launch a Rallycross season, the exciting crossover between rallying and track racing. Well, it has finally happened, albeit from an unlikely source; Skoda. The brand’s UAE distributor Ali and Sons, working under the guidance of Sheikh Marwan Bin Rashed Al Mualla (with the cars being built by the Motoplex Rally Academy) have announced an eight round Rallycross calendar, all to be held at Umm Al Quwain’s Motoplex facility.
All the cars will be 1.6 litre Skoda Fabias, with auto gearboxes, to keep the field level. The cars will be fitted with a roll cage, rally cross suspension, seat and harness, as well as the standard safety equipment.
But here’s the interesting bit. The cost will be around AED70,000. That’s for the whole season, including entry fees, the car and importantly all the clothing, including a helmet and HANS device. All you’ll need to do is get yourself a race licence.
It also includes spares and servicing, so you pay 70k and that’s it. Unless you crash the car, you’ll be able to sit back happily knowing you don’t need to spend anything else.
Now we know what you’re thinking, rally cross is full of crashes, right? Well, for this season, the races will be held two cars at a time on separate tracks, in a similar style to the famous Race of Champions. That way driving skill, rather than the deepest pocket should win the championship.
Oh, we forgot to mention, the season winner gets a brand new Skoda Fabia, so you could end up with two. Roll on 2016!
Hello we would like to get more information about the series
We were doing it in the late 70s and early 80s in Dubai organised by the alnasr motorsports club,location was rashidiya,Saeed Khalfan who was the chairman of the Dubai Autodrome was a leading light at the time another was Abdulla Omar.