Officials at the Qatar Motor and Motorcycle Federation (QMMF) are finalising the route for this year’s renamed Qatar Cross-Country Rally, round four of the FIA Cross-Country Rally World Cup and round two of the FIM Cross-Country Rallies World Championship, and confirmed the revised five-day event will run on April 17-22.
Traditionally one of the toughest rounds of both championships for tricky navigation and intricate tracks and sand trails, the event has been cut from five selective sections to four and features several innovations.
We have fine tuned the route and the format for the Sealine event, based on feedback and our intuition. We have reduced the number of long selective sections from five to four and reduced the actual competitive distance to around 1,380km from 1,635km. The rally will also cover a larger geographical area on this occasion and we will have less stony sections.
Abdulrahman Al-Mannai, QMMF President
The format
Rally headquarters and the media centre will be at the Losail International Circuit for a second year. Administration checks and scrutineering now take place at Losail, north of Doha, on Monday, April 17.
After a drivers’ briefing and the pre-event press conference, competitors tackle a new super special stage in the Doha area on Tuesday, April 18. The first of four desert selective sections runs on April 19, followed by three more on April 20, 21 and 22, each around 350km.
The fourth stage on April 21 runs entirely in the north of the country for the first time, while two stages finish in the dunes around the former Sealine bivouac south of Doha, where the fourth stage will also start.
Portugal’s Pedro Almeida continues as Clerk of the Course for the FIA event, with Rashed Al-Sulaiti as deputy and Frenchman Franck Vayssié appointed as the new Rally Director.
History
The former Sealine event grew out of the Qatar International Baja, an FIA World Cup candidate event in 2011 won by Qatar’s Nasser Saleh Al-Attiyah in a SAM Mercedes 35CC, with Australia’s Justin Taylor and local rider Adel Hussein Abdulla winning the motorcycle and quad categories.
Now entering its sixth season as a round of both the FIA and FIM World Championships, the event has been won by Al-Attiyah again in 2012, 2014, 2015 and 2016 in Toyotas and Minis, with two-time Dakar winner Jean-Louis Schlesser victorious in 2013.
Five-time Dakar winner Marc Coma dominated the bikes on his KTM in 2012, 2013 and 2015, with Spain’s Joan Barreda Bort winning in 2014 and recent Dakar winner Sam Sunderland taking another KTM win last year.
Poland’s Rafal Sonik won the quads on a Honda TRX 700 in 2012, 2013 and 2015, with Qatar’s Mohammed Abu Issa winning in 2014 and Chile’s Ignacio Casale in 2016.
Reduced-rate entries close on Monday, March 6, with a final cut-off of Monday, March 27. Regulations and entry forms are available from www.qmmf.com.