Speaking to the Rally of Lebanon organising committee at the end of the Baabdat Hill Climb, round three of the Lebanese Hill Climb Championship, Abdo Feghali explained why he has been absent from hill climbs this year.
Since the start of this year I have put all my money and everything I have into rallies and into the Ford R5 so that I am ready for the Rally of Lebanon. God willing, I will return to the hill climb championship next year.
Abdo Feghali
“Dado”, as rally fans like to call him, has used the Motortune Racing Ford Fiesta R5, run under the supervision of his brother Roger, in the local championship to rack up as many kilometres as possible before the 39th Rally of Lebanon on September 2–4, an 11-stage event that forms round four of the Middle East Rally Championship. With long-time co-driver Marc Haddad he won the 32nd Spring Rally and the 25th Cedars Rally, but left the fifth Jezzine Rally empty-handed after an accident on the first day.
The one title missing
Abdo makes no secret of his only dream: winning the Rally of Lebanon, the one title missing from his record. He has won the Lebanese Rally Championship four times (2004, 2005, 2006 and 2013), dominated the Speed Test championship from its creation in 2008 until 2015 with 24 consecutive wins (he chose not to compete this year), won eight consecutive hill climb titles between 2006 and 2013, and also won the Middle East Hill Climb Challenge.
After the Cedars Rally he said that Nasser Saleh Al-Attiyah’s entry had reshuffled the cards and that he would not accept his brother Roger competing in a Group N car, as had been planned had Nasser stayed away. Motortune Racing then brought in a Skoda Fabia R5 for Abdo, with Roger driving the Ford R5, in a family alliance to challenge Nasser and keep the Rally of Lebanon trophy in Wadi Chahrour.
God willing, I will compete in the Skoda Fabia R5 in the Rally of Lebanon because it is the best and newest model, and I had problems with the Ford R5 in the local championship. I have got used to braking later and to the suspension, and these things are no different behind the wheel of the Skoda or the Ford… What I learned in the Ford was not wasted. Nasser Saleh Al-Attiyah will compete in the Skoda Fabia R5, and neither Roger nor I want him to have an advantage over us, even of 1 per cent.
Abdo Feghali
Al-Attiyah drove the same car last year and retired on the third stage. Abdo said the 500 to 600km he covered in the Ford R5 would help him adapt quickly to the Skoda, and that because the car belongs to Motortune Racing rather than being rented, it would arrive in Lebanon in time for intensive testing, unlike in the past when his hired cars arrived just two or three days before the rally.