A young Lebanese prospect that is trying to find his way into the difficult Lebanese motorsports world. Roger Bridi talks about his career so far and his future.
In the spring rally you had some difficulties in the car but you were still happy with your result. What are your targets for the Cedars rally?
We had prepared the car very well, in spring rally, especially in terms of reliability. As you know the regulations forbid testing, some people respect this others don’t. We didn’t have the budget for testing and we respect the law, so we arrived to the rally without testing. We didn’t know the limit of the car and in the first 2 stages I had some overheating in the car so I decided to drive on a slow pace. In addition to this I lost the intercom in the car. All these reasons resulted in me loosing time and the 1600cc cars started to come close to me, like Jospeh Nasr. We went to the service area and fixed everything and started pushing and coming close to the position we wanted after the rally. Starting from SS3 we got close to the RS cars and although I didn’t really benefit from the first 2 stages to get to know the rally much better I made the maximum I can to finish the rally behind the RS cars and this is the normal position of my car.
For the Cedars rally we worked a little on the car, that’s all. The car is group N and we hope for the best results possible.
You are from the young guys that are entering this sport and pushing hard to compete although you don’t have a huge budget to be able to do it on the highest level with cars on the highest level. How did you start and how are you managing?
I have grown up as a huge fan of motorsport and especially the mechanical part of Motorsport. I wanted to study automotive engineering but circumstances didn’t help so I did the studies on my own. I loved rallying, and I remember the days of Johnny Mowakadeyye and the golden era of the nineties with JP Nasrallah and the beginnings of Roger Feghali and I also remember Baguera. When I was 18 or 19 I started to find that I have some skills, and I started training illegal with unprepared cars. This was all wrong but you have to start somewhere. Anyway I tried to do a hill climb when I was 19 but I couldn’t until I found a sponsor for speed test when I was 21 and this is how I started my career. I am the type of a guy that believes in improvement. Big champions like Roger and Dado are not just fast, they are people who work on their self to be fast and improve. I’m not the type to use the car as a reason to be slow or something like that, so if I’m in the 20th position it means that there are 19 people faster than me and I should improve. Anyway in my first year in speed tests I was always put in a car without preparation and I finished the championship 3rd in my category (1st N3 and 4th PRO). This really gave us a push and we worked on a sponsor to do Hill Climbs. At my age back then I was a young guy with a lot of enthusiasm but no guidance I did the wrong step to drive a Peaguet when I had the opportunity to drive something better and I finished way behind. In the following year we prepared the Renault and started working on it and improving step by step. In the beginning we were way behind and then we started improving. I continued the season in the wrong way when I entered the wrong garage which I don’t want to state their name now. We had a misunderstanding which led me to have an accident. The accident as down to the wrong suspension setup which led to an accident. Anyway this is behind me now and I which them all the best. In 2010 we were a little shaken after the accident, we bought the Seat which is not the best car out there and started working on improving myself I was far behind but at end of the year I really improved. We reached the Spring Rally 2011 and we did a good result and we are happy of the way things are going.
You have just summed up your career for us, who inspired you as a childhood Idol to go into rallying?
I remember pretty well JP Nasrallah, Im not naming JP because he is someone I know or anything. If they ask him who is Roger Bridi he probably won’t know. JP Nasrallah was in the peak of the golden era in Lebanese motorsports. He was so fast. Mohammad Bin Suliem and Abdullah Ba Khashab used to be always aware of his threat and ability. Simply he was phenomenal especially on the Lancia and his techniques on this car were phenomenal too. I hope he will return because his return will give a big push for the sport.
Of the young guys in rallying now a days, who has the brightest future?
The key of success is improvement. There are many drivers on development programs that have really improved. Take gilbert Bannout, and check where he was in 2002 and where is [singlepic id=677 w=320 h=240 float=right]here. Take Tamer Ghandour, last year he was second in the championship. He has improved a lot since 2006 especially through the guidance of MotorTune. Nicolas Amiouni was far behind in 2010 when he started, look how he developed and how fast he is this year. I know they have the right package to help them improve but they are really fast. I really feel sorry for people that have been trying for a long time and their target is not to improve but to just finish the rally. I am dreaming to win someday and I am going to work on it as the guys I mentioned above did.
What does it take for you to get the right package and be like those guys you mentioned?
There is a long road. I am learning from their experience. The main constraint is the budget that is mainly provided by me and my parents. It take good car which is prepared in the right way. It’s about good setup and good preparation for the right place. It also takes good fitness to succeed.
Do you have the right guidance?
Unfortunately not. If have the right budget to do a rally season on an EVO, I would got to TGRS or MotorTune. I named these 2 garages because they are simply the best. Their cars are always very reliable and they are doing a great gob in improving their cars and drivers. Roger Feghali doesn’t need my opinion but if he has 5 cars in the rally all 5 are finishing, and the same is applies to Tony whom I consider as the best team manager. If I have right budget I would go to those guys, but their cost is high for me now and they deserve it.
At the end this sport has seen a lot of changes in 2011 so far, reaching the new TV coverage, how do you see the sport now and its future?
No sport in the world would succeed without TV coverage. It’s the best key of success to be honest. It’s a big cycle starting from the TV and the return on investment will benefit everyone starting from the drivers reaching the sponsors and the media. Broadcasting things like the speed test and the super stages and similar things will really boost the sport. The fact the OTV has decided to cover all the events live gave ATCL some motivation to improve a lot of things including the official test and the shakedown. If you see the amount of spots ahead of every event on TV you will be amazed.
The issue of official testing is very good for people like me. I don’t have a team to help close the road to test and don’t have the logistics to support myself in such day. We will start to feel the difference in the rallying and in the change starting in 2012. People will start feeling it and the hype of the 90s era will return.
Any last message?
I would like to thank everybody who stood by my side regardless of my results. I don’t want to talk about your website but I just want to salute you for your efforts. It’s a website that Lebanese motorsports need from a long time ago. We wish you all the best.
A big salute to ATCL for their organization, and tremendous work. We should not forget the difficult jib that they do and the financial difficulties they face. Regarding people who organizing event without the support of ATCL, I would say it’s very wrong. I hope everybody will give their ideas and support for ATCL and ATCL is open to all ideas. They are not closed on themselves at all.
I want to thank my friends for all their support and help. I would like to thanks my sponsors that have supported me in the first 4 years of my career and I hope they stay there, Sets exclusive agents of Dell in Lebanon.
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