Gilbert Bannout has confirmed he will be taking part in the 36th Rally of Lebanon, the fourth round of the 2013 Middle East Rally Championship (5-8 September), after announcing that he has joined Motortune Racing – supervised by ten-time Rally of Lebanon winner Roger Feghali – alongside his Belgian co-driver Renaud Jamoul.
Bannout, who recently arrived to Lebanon from the UAE, where he works, is aware just how important Rally of Lebanon is to his Motorsport career; he’ll be driving a Ford Fiesta R5, the same one driven by Roger Feghali during the Cedars Rally before being forced to retire due to a fuel tank issue. Bannout is also facing the pressure of having to challenge for the Lebanese Rally Championship title, which he leads by 5 points from Abdo Feghali.
He knows the challenge he’ll be facing in Abdo Feghali
In this regard, Bannout says: “I know well that the battle with Abdo Feghali is going to be tough in Rally of Lebanon. I’m at the office, busy with work, and he’s at the stages practicing day and night. However, he’s a fast and talented driver, and I’ve been working on myself since the Cedars Rally in order to gain these few seconds to get as close as possible.”
Bannout’s participation is under the Al Qudra Rally team (Sponsor and team founder), and he’s got what it takes to compete; there will be representatives from the company who will follow the rally’s happenings, alongside the other main sponsor Sakr Real Estate and others such as Admir, Noon Sport and Sky News Arabia.
No doubt that a lot of people were surprised by Bannout’s decision to switch to a Ford Fiesta R5 after driving a MINI RRC during the Spring, Summer and Cedars Rallies where he scored a second-place finish and two third-place finishes to take the championship lead, and there’s no one better to explain the situation but himself: “I’m not participating on the MINI RRC at the Rally of Lebanon, because it will be in the hands of someone else. I worked hard on finding sponsors and the best car at the start of the season in order to win the championship, and now I’m leading by 5 points ahead of Abdo Feghali, and I will fight alongside my co-driver Renaud Jamoul to take the title.”
“The reason I’m not driving the MINI is that, and particularly in February, I called the exclusive MINI dealer in Lebanon many times, I visited their offices and I sent them emails, but there was no reply. After I drove the MINI to three podium places, a first in the Lebanese Rally Championship, I got no calls or email as a “thank you” for my efforts.”
“I will not drive a MINI”
Bannout continued: “I was completely ignored by MINI Lebanon, and then I found out that they were sponsoring Abdo Feghali, so I felt sad, and wondered what kind of marketing strategy they were up to. They are sponsoring the driver who performed donuts on a car with gearbox issues during the 2012 Rally of Lebanon, without thinking about the spectators’ safety, while I gave my best to reach the podium… In the end, I decided to take things slowly, reach the finish line at the Cedars Rally and not drive the MINI anymore.”
Bannout also criticized the fact that the provisional championship standings are never published, and he hoped that the ATCL would publish the 2014 regulations in November, and that they would separate the Lebanese Rally Championship from the Lebanese Hill Climb Championship. Concerning the super special stages, Bannout said: “I would like to thank the organizing committee for the efforts put into the super special stage, but I think they should’ve cancelled it due to the country’s situation and just sticked to the Friday start, and I say this because of fears that something might happen, especially that the foreign media doesn’t know the truth of our situation, they criticized us for partying while the Nahr El Bared conflicts were on.”
In the end, we conclude by mentioning that Bannout took part in the third and final round of the 2013 Lebanese Hill Climb Championship in Deir El Qamar and won the front-wheel drive class on a Renault Clio R3 owned by Walid Chlink; he raced the Renault in order to gain more points for the Lebanese Rally Championship; Bannout apologized to all the drivers for doing so.