Qatar’s Adel Hussein will contest the 26th Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge, round two of the FIA Cross Country Rally World Cup from 2 to 7 April 2016. It is his first official FIA event as a driver, after spending most of his career in the co-driver’s seat.
I started in 1990 as a co-driver, then I got the chance to drive for the Porsche team in the Transsyberia rally (7,200 km) in 2007, where I finished third on my first attempt, and in 2008.
Adel Hussein
Hussein is one of Porsche’s certified factory instructors, after training at the Porsche academy in Leipzig in 2008. Since 2011 he has raced quads in desert rallies, winning the Qatar Baja and the Qatar national championship, and finishing second in an international endurance championship held in Qatar.
He then co-drove for several drivers in the Middle East Rally Championship. Since 2014 he has sat beside Saudi driver Ahmed Al Sabban in some desert rallies, sometimes sharing the driving.
A new T2 Nissan
Hussein has prepared a new Nissan Patrol V8 in the T2 class for his debut. The Qatar Motor and Motorcycle Federation will cover some of the costs of his entries in the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge and the Sealine Desert rally. With full backing, he would like to contest every round of the World Cup.
His co-driver is young Egyptian Hakam Rabie, who started in 2009 as Egypt’s youngest co-driver at 19. His best result came at the 2014 Pharaons Rally, where he won the T2 class and finished eighth overall, the same year he won the Egyptian championship.
The rally opens with a super special stage at Yas Marina Circuit on Saturday 2 April, before five days in the dunes of the Liwa desert in Abu Dhabi’s Western Region.