December 22, 2015 – Roger Feghali’s 2015 season was very close to perfection as he sealed four out of four victories in the Lebanese Rally Championship and two out of three victories in the Lebanese Hill Climb Championship to eventually claim both titles.
“Dominant” was a word we used very often to describe Roger’s rally victories this year; he finished 2 minutes clear of his rivals in the Spring Rally, and followed it up with a similarly commanding drive in Jezzine to take the win by a 3-minute margin.
With Abdo Feghali announcing that he was going to take part in the Cedars’ Rally in a Ford Fiesta RRC, we believed that this was going to be Roger’s first challenge of the year; but it wasn’t. Roger looked extremely comfortable in the Evo X R4 and netted another victory, whilst Abdo controversially withdrew from the event. Roger went on to make it three wins in a row.
Roger’s second challenge of the year was in the form of Nasser Al-Attiyah in Rally of Lebanon; Nasser brought his Skoda Fabia R5 to the event in hopes of scoring his first ROL win and beating his Lebanese rival for the first time ever, and things went well for the Qatari on the first day’s super special stage, beating Roger by 8 seconds. However, Roger responded on the opening stage of the following day, before Nasser made a mistake on the next stage, allowing Roger to cruise to a record-breaking 12th victory in Rally of Lebanon onboard his red Ford Fiesta R5.
It wasn’t as “easy” for Roger in the Lebanese Hill Climb Championship, and he had to work hard as he went up against his brother Abdo; 0.17 seconds separated the two brothers in the first round of the season in Deir El Qamar, with Abdo prevailing.
0.93 seconds separated Roger and Abdo in the second round in Falougha, but it was Roger who won this time after a spectacular and record-breaking drive that was featured on Top Gear and other international automotive websites.
Bkassine Hill Climb wasn’t as pressuring as the previous two rounds, with Abdo not part of the competition. Roger took his second Hill Climb triumph of 2015, finishing 5 seconds clear of Jawad Slim, and clinched the title.
Roger’s record in 2015 was almost flawless: 2/2 championship titles, 4/4 Rally wins and 2/3 Hill Climb wins. They say the only way is up when you’re at the bottom, but what if you’ve already reached the top, many times? What could be Roger Feghali’s way in 2016? The new season can’t come soon enough.
