UMEÅ, SWEDEN – Oman Rally Team’s Abdullah Al-Rawahi and Ata Al-Hmoud overcame their lack of winter experience and heavy snowfall to make an impressive start to their FIA Junior World Rally Championship (JWRC) campaign at Rally Sweden.
After Saturday morning’s Vännäs stage – ninth of 18 – the crew were progressing well in their M-Sport Poland Ford Fiesta Rally3 on the first of five JWRC rounds. Having dropped to 16th after hitting a bank on SS7 on Friday evening and taking time penalties, they bounced back with the 12th fastest time.
It was tough and so many changes with the weather and the conditions. It was pretty new to me and a new challenge. We had a lot of moments and we lost so much time. The good thing was that we did all the stages until the last one (Friday) when we hit a bank and we broke the radiator. We had to stop. Otherwise, I was happy with the day.
Abdullah Al-Rawahi
We stopped five kilometres from the finish of the seventh stage when we hit a snow bank. It was a tough experience coming to a WRC and starting with Sweden. This was tough and driving at night was also new to Abdullah and for me as well. Anyway, we hope to gain more experience over the weekend. The pace has been okay.
Ata Al-Hmoud
How the rally unfolded
Al-Rawahi impressed on Thursday’s shakedown as he adapted to pushing between snowbanks on studded tyres. Bolivian rival Bruno Bulacia crashed before the start, reducing the JWRC field to 18. Al-Rawahi was 16th on the opening 5.16km sprint stage in Umeå, then 14th through Brattby on Friday morning, where local driver Mikke Johansson was fastest.
After Noorby and Floda he returned to service 14th, having set the ninth fastest JWRC time on SS4, with Germany’s Fabio Schwarz leading Johansson by 0.6 seconds. Heavy snow then made the afternoon re-run of Brattby treacherous for the front-runners, and Al-Rawahi’s 10th fastest time lifted him to 13th.
He was running strongly on the second pass through Noorby until he hit a bank late in the stage, breaking the radiator, and skipped the final Umeå sprint to avoid engine damage. Johansson leads from Estonia’s Romet Jürgenson.
Saturday afternoon features the Vännäs, Sarsjöliden and Bygdsiljum stages and a new stage at Umeå, before Sunday brings two passes through the 25.50km Västervik stage and a second run of the 10.08km Umeå Power Stage.