Yesterday saw the kickoff of the 2012 Lebanese “Speed Test” championship, in different man. People are now sure that Abdo Feghali will not be champion at the end of the year even if he won all the races. Abdo will be participating for cup wins only and he will not collect points. After the race that he won by a considerable margin we met with Abdo and had this chat.
After some speculation and controversy we saw you participating and winning the first speed test this year, but this time with no points scored. What do you think?
As you know man about the misunderstanding that took place, ATCL claimed that many drivers did not want to participate because Dado is winning all the time. We gathered 64 drivers who wanted me to participate even, drivers like Osmat Saifi who finished behind me many times last year in the championship and drivers Paul Kossiefy and Garo.
The guys wanted a benchmark to compare themselves to, and this is what happened. At the same time we wanted to tell ATCL that there are rules that need to be changed, not for our personal benefit, but for the benefit of the sport. The ATCL did not accept all our proposals and said they don’t have time to change them, so we decided to meet later on and plan everything for next year. Many things should be changed for next year, especially in the amateur category where the cars should not be tuned, and should not have hydraulic hand brake and slick tyres…
Isn’t this the principle in the first place?
Yes it the principle, similar to what’s happening in Dubai and in Jordan so we have to practice this here.
There should be 2 amateur categories, one of normal cars and one for tuned cars, and a category for Pros. Every person should be able to participate in the category of his choice as long as he respects these rules. We will sit with the ATCL to improve all this, and we hope next year we will see 80 cars instead of 40.
Are you still motivated for Speed Tests?
Sure man, its racing!!!
Are you still motivated for racing or for giving the fans a treat?
Man racing is in my blood!!! I am motivated for everything, for racing, for the fans, for everything. Everything is exciting, the pressure ahead of the race although I am racing with no pressure this year because I cannot compete for the championship, but still we did a good media coverage for our sponsors.
We have an awareness mission too. We are telling people to come and enjoy their driving skills in the Speed Test and CPD, instead of doing it on the roads. Look I took the whole issue on my shoulders. I will be the only one with no championship this year…but you have to sacrifice a bit for the good of the sport.
Who do you see are your competitors especially from the new guys?
Honestly there are not many new guys.
From the guys who are young are working on improving themselves?
Well many guys are working on themselves, but you cannot see new guys when the cost is still high. They need to install slick tyres and a hydrolic hand brake. Unless the amateur championship remains amateur it will remain difficult. We hope this will change by next year.
Apart from the speed test, when are we going to see your son in Karting?
Well as you know it’s all about him, so if he likes it he will go down this road, and as you see with time he likes it more and he understands it more. At 5 or 6 he should start driving.
