Joseph you have always made us used to your honesty, and we hope this will be the case this time around.
It will sure be.
You have started this season with Eddy Bou Karam, and after the Spring Rally you have promised us some progress. Why didn’t we witness it deeply in the Cedars Rally?
Last year Eddy tried drove only in the Rally of Lebanon and he drove just 2 stages. In the Spring Rally we broke the Gearbox handle which slowed us down a bit. The spring rally in general was a just a practice ride, and we agreed to push further in the Cedars Rally. He showed some more progress in the Cedars Rally but I wanted it to be a bit better. In the Cedars Rally we saw another problem which was a puncture. It slowed us a bit again so we could have finished top 8 or 9.
In general every driver has a progress ladder, and need a specific time to reach its top. Some drivers does it from the first rally, others need more time. Eddy is a very enthusiastic guy. He is very motivated to progress as fast as possible but sometimes things are not translated on the timesheet. Eddy is a guy who is motivated to improve. This time around he has some personal matters where he is going to get married, but I advise him, if he has the ambition, not to stop. If he cannot participate in ROL, he should put a program for next year where he continues his development. I just hope he translate his passion into results.
Do you believe that his raw talent compares to that of Nicolas Amiouni or previously Gilbert Bannout in his progress years?
Look Eddy has effectively driven 2 rallies. His times were not bad in general but weren’t the times that he would wish to be having. They were normal. Nicolas Amiouni in his beginnings didn’t score the time he is doing now. He had a turning point where he started to appear more and more. It was the rally of Lebanon last year where his times improved a lot compared to his first rally, and this is very normal. He was second overall maybe before he had to retire.
The same happened to Gilbert Bannout earlier in his career. At the end of 2007 he finished ROL 10th with very normal records on the time sheet. In 2008 we raced neither in the Spring Rally nor in the Cedars Rally. We had some minimal testing, and we got some road tips from Abdo Feghali, and started to progress starting from the Batroun stage in ROL. This was his turning point. He started to get into the mix. I’m not saying he started fighting with Roger Feghali or something similar but he started fighting for 2nd and 3rd place.
This didn’t happen to Eddy yet?
I hope it happens with Eddy, and I guess he needs some more rallies under his belt. He might have a turning point, and might not have it, but we should give him more time.
If Eddy will not participate in ROL, who will you co-drive?
Well I can’t give you a definite answer that Eddy will not participate, but I’m saying this according to my last chat with him. His wedding is very soon and he will be busy with it. He may have a last minute change in mind regarding the rally so I don’t know.
With respect to me, I’m still not participating too. I didn’t get any offer from anybody yet to be honest.
If you get a good opportunity with a good package are you willing to participate with a different team other than TGRS?
Although I have started as an amateur co-driver and now I get paid to do it, I won’t just opt for the best paying package. I am a person with passion for rallying, and I prefer to drive in an atmosphere where I can be comfortable. I will try to be with TGRS. If there is no driver to participate with, it’s not wrong at all to be part of the team in a different role like team manager for example.
I am very good friends with Tony Germany since 2005, we have worked with many guys since that time, like Ziad Chalhoub, Elie Germany and Gilbert Bannout. I like the atmosphere inside the team. Rallies for me are not about money, they are about pleasure. If a good package is arranged with a TGRS driver then I’ll be co-driving, if not I will settle for a role in the team.
In the last period of time we saw many changes in your team. We saw some drivers coming in and others going out. For example we saw Christian Kurban driving with you in the Cedars Rally, and Osmat Saify drove for 2 events too. What does this mean?
In all honesty, for example a team like MotorTune has 5 drivers committed to all rallies. They have the budget this year to do 3 rallies at least, consistently. Tamer had the budget on the limit I guess, but all the others are comfortable to do a full season. In addition to that all these drivers own their cars, unlike the drivers in our team whom usually rent a car and suffer from budget constraints. In addition to this most of our drivers find problems with time. Some are finding it difficult to rally especially because they are abroad in their work. Gilbert for example is probably not competing in ROL because he changed jobs, and has to be there in UAE at the time of rally. Joseph Hindy, who is not a millionaire, is trying hard to compete too, and we hope he can participate in ROL.
In our team it’s not about continuity. The team will be present in ROL and in all events, but our drivers are not sure about their budgets. Sysley is the best example for that. He participated in 2 rallies this year, but still don’t have the budget for ROL, which needs much bigger finances.
The team is definitely continuing but some issues related to budget are bothering some of our drivers.
MotorTune has beaten you in overall results in all rallies this year. Their overall performance has been much better over the course of these rallies. What does it take to beat them?
If we look on both team line ups we see that with MotorTune, there are well known and established drivers.
To start with there is Roger Feghali. When we say Roger Feghali, we need not to say anything else. We know he will be winning and dominating after all.
We have Nick Georgiou who is very good driver, a Pirelli Star driver at some point, who has a lot of experience. MotorTune worked on Nick to become a much better driver. Nicolas Amiouni has a big campaign with MotorTune, and he has been doing rallies abroad and practicing. Nick and Nicolas are excellent and they have the means to improve and be competitive all the time.
On our side our problem is that the guys who drive for TGRS tackle each event on its own. For them to be able to compete they need bigger finances and more practice. The guys who can compete with MotorTune drivers are Gilbert Bannout and Joseph Hindy. Off course we are talking of a competition with the drivers but not Roger. Roger is far away. They can compete with Tamer, Nicolas and Nick.
Gilbert Beat Tamer In the Spring Rally and finished third but he is not practicing and driving a lot. To be able to compete consistently you should be able to test. The few kilometers that Gilbert does ahead of every race are not enough at all. With a bigger budget Gilbert and maybe an R4 kit, he can fight with Tamer, Nicolas and Nick consistently.
Joseph needs more finances and practice too. Again you need to be able to dedicated to the sport and have the means to fight.
Moving to Christian Kurban, whom I saw his stage times in the Cedars Rally …
(Interrupting) Can we consider Christian a TGRS driver?
If you have a driver in the team for one rally and circumstances made him skip another it does not mean that he is not a team driver but also it doesn’t mean he is consistent too. You need to ask him if he considers himself a TGRS driver or not.
It’s all about the budget after all. If you have the budget to commit to a full season of rallies, then you can say that you are a TGRS driver or a driver in another team. If Christian has the budget to drive in ROL, then he is a driver in the team. In Lebanon you don’t have a team that owns five cars and participating in rallies. Most drivers that are not skipping rallies are those who own their cars.
This season saw a lot of changes. ATCL made some changes on rallies, in addition to rule changes. We saw some new media outlets, and a brand new TV coverage. The competition is taking a fierce twist. How do you see the season so far?
I want to be very positive. Even if we have a small percentage of negatives, we mention it but we should look at the positives much more. The most important thing that made us happy is the number of participants in all competitions. This is really surprising in an economic situation like ours to see this big number of participants. Local rallies saw 24 cars which is similar to WRC Mexico this year. If things stay as they are we might witness around 50 cars in ROL, which is the limit number of contestants. In hill climbs we saw 40 cars; in speed test we can see 50 cars. This is the biggest positive in 2011.
I just want to tell OTV, Bravo. I know that technically they need to work on themselves much more. Nobody can do a perfect job from the first year. With the small advice of every single person, they can get better and better. They accept advice as it seems and they are working on themselves to improve. The live coverage is very good for the sport. Many people never used to watch the sport and now they are. Many people never go to rallies, but if rallies come to their home they will watch them.
There was a previous theory with Media outlets that live coverage would prevent people from coming, but it seems that it’s not true. The people who are passionate and want to watch races on the roads are coming anyways. Live coverage is successful in addressing the people who don’t want to go down to roads anyways.
Moving to online media, where I want to give it a good deal of credit, especially that newspapers are publishing traditional news or press release. They have become very backwards and have lost the pace of development that motorsports is witnessing. Newspapers are publishing one article ahead and after each motorsports event. Nobody is publishing any news or analysis. I’m not blaming newspapers’ owners, but this is the reality. Before ROL, you will open all newspapers and find the same press release, in addition to the same picture. The online media changed a lot in 2011. Many websites improved their selves and upgraded and a new website launched and grew in a fast rate. The online media really changed the dynamics of the sport. People who are living abroad and are interested in the sport are checking news daily. If somebody wants to check photos or videos or anything else, he has the online media to check. Online media was a revelation this season but we hope that media outlets preserve their journalistic message and keep on delivering the news as it is.
Lately you were subject to some controversy in the media, could you tell us what happened?
I had an interview with a certain media outlet and I was misquoted, and my conversation was presented out of context in a title to attract readers. Simply the meaning deduced from the interview was not what I meant.
After this engaging conversation, do you have any final message to add?
First of all I would like to thank for this interview. I hope that every person in this domain would give himself the time to reflect and try to stop the tensed atmosphere we are in. As soon as this intensity stops it will be better heading into ROL. We should leave the small details, the narrow benefits. We should enjoy the sport, with the competitions and the championships we have. We should put the personal problems on the side and concentrate on our work. We should get back to being friends, eating together and going out together and on the stages, may the best man win.
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