It seems that Roger Feghali’s 10 fingers are no longer enough to count his number of Rally of Lebanon titles; Roger wants a lot more than that and seeks perfection in his continuous work, both as a driver and a supervisor to Motortune’s work.
For those who look at Roger’s special stage numbers must be left wondering how he manages to keep all those fastest times in his small pocket, making him one of the best drivers in Lebanon’s rallying history, with numbers proving that he’s actually the very best.
Since 2006, and the 22nd Spring Rally in particular (April 30, 2006), Roger Feghali went through what would be his last retirement from the Lebanese Rally Championship when he hit a roadside pavement on a Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 6, giving Doumit Bou Doumit and co-driver Louay Sakr (Evo 8) the victory.
Roger Feghali’s dominance began on May 14, 2006 during the 15th Cedars Rally, winning 22 rallies in a row since then: 6 consecutive Spring Rally victories, 7 Cedars Rally wins, 7 Rally of Lebanon wins, 2 Summer Rally wins… the winning streak ended at the 2013 Cedars Rally when Roger withdrew due to a fuel tank problem on his Ford Fiesta R5.
It is worth mentioning that Roger skipped the 29th Spring Rally because his Motortune squad had commitments with Jordanian driver Ala’a Rashid who’s taking part in the WRC-2 championship.
The car’s identity
Regarding his Rally of Lebanon participation, which is the fourth round of the 2013 Middle East Rally Championship and is held between 5-8 September, Roger said: “I decided to participate on a Ford Fiesta, that’s all I can say so far. We had a fuel tank issue on the Ford Fiesta R5 during the Cedars Rally, and it is a new car, still under development.”
Roger confirmed the challenges that await him are numerous; he skipped the Spring Rally because of Ala’a Rashid’s participation in the WRC, he then won the Summer Rally and retired from the Cedars Rally, and now he’s getting ready for Jordan’s Rumman Hill Climb, hoping that he’ll break the record previously set by himself in 2007 on a Mitsubishi Evo 6 Motortune Proto (1:48.76), especially that the rules have now changed with 42mm air restrictors now allowed and a 1100 kg minimum weight.
Not resting on his laurels
Roger did not forget to talk about his records when we mentioned the importance of what he’s doing and his 10 Rally of Lebanon victories, 9 of which are in a row (2003-2012), knowing that the rally never took part in 2005 due to Rafiq Al Harriri’s assassination, he said: “We take every rally by itself, numbers are nice, but we’re always trying to focus on upcoming rallies, what good are numbers if we retire? We have to focus and not rest on our laurels.”
And for those of you who love numbers, we’d like to remind you that Roger’s won Rally of Lebanon twice with co-driver Ziad Chehab (2000 and 2003), five times with Nabil Njeim (2004, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2010), once with Giovanni Bernacchini (2008) and twice with Joseph Matar (2011 and 2012).
Roger praised the Rally of Lebanon organizers and the idea of hosting a super special stage, saying: “The super special stage idea is brilliant with the live TV coverage; a lot of people will attend, and it gives the rally a very special taste.”
No matter who he’s facing, Roger believes he’s got to do his job and doesn’t care who his competitors are. So, because of his Spring Rally absence, he decided to tackle the Rouergue Rally, the fifth round of the French Rally Championship (11-14 July), where he managed to move up many positions but retired later on due to a misread pacenote…
Motortune team
Alongside his driving duties, Roger supervises and runs the Motortune team, considered one of the best squads in the Middle East and is the first Arab team to compete in the WRC-2.
“We started preparing for the Rally of Lebanon right after the Cedars Rally, and everyone knows that other than looking out for myself and focusing on my driving, I am the team principal and I supervise the driving lessons and I work as an engineer, preparing cars, and these things take a lot of my time… we have 7 cars in Rally of Lebanon, and we prepare 2 weeks before a Hill Climb.”
Roger’s exceptional performance in rallies reflects positively on Motortune, who are now supervising the cars of Turkish driver Burcu Cetinkaya, Jordan’s Ala’a Rashid, Nicolas Amiouni, Chafic Boulos, Tamer Ghandour, Joe Kfoury and Dani Abou Chakra, with Qatari driver Abdulaziz Alkuwari, who joined the team at the start of this year, absent due to his Rally Australia commitment, part of his WRC-2 campaign in which he’s leading.