August 28, 2015 – Lebanese Rally Champion Roger Feghali will face Nasser Al-Attiyah and his Skoda Fabia R5 in a Ford Fiesta R5 at the 38th Rally of Lebanon, a decision that surprised many, considering Roger has better cars available, including the Fiesta RRC.
After this big decision we met up with Roger and talked about all the updates ahead of the upcoming Rally of Lebanon next week, the 11-time Rally of Lebanon winner revealed the reason behind his decision to drive the Fiesta R5 and spoke about many other topics, including his team and drivers, as well as the competition.
“It’s a big challenge for me to drive the Fiesta R5, further improve in the car, push myself and win Rally of Lebanon. I’m also receiving support from M-Sport Ford for the event. They will send out a team of engineers that will help me out throughout the rally, in addition to supplying us with spare parts for the car. Their presence is a big support for me and it will motivate me to undertake Rally of Lebanon in a Fiesta R5.” said Roger.
He added: “The Skoda Fabia R5 has been clearly faster than the Fiesta R5 around the world, but Ford is currently developing the car for next year”.
Roger believes the competition this year will depend on Nasser’s Fabia R5 and how fast it is compared to his Fiesta R5, but he expects it to be a close fight up front, admitting that Nasser has improved over the years by gaining more experience and by driving a lot of kilometers, and that he showed good pace onboard the Fabia R5 in WRC Rallye Deutschland especially at the final day of the rally. Roger’s initial decision was to drive the Mitsubishi Evo X R4, but when Nasser chose the Fabia R5, Roger put up a challenge and chose the Fiesta R5.
Joseph Matar will be Roger’s co-driver for the 38th Rally of Lebanon, and the latter reconfirmed that they have a great relationship, as they are good friends and enjoy great chemistry in the car, but he’s also aware of the good working relationship between Nasser and his new co-driver Matthieu Baumel, when asked about the subject, he replied:
“Baumel is a professional co-driver, and you can get accustomed to a professional co-driver after 20 kilometers of driving.” said Roger.
When asked about the weight differences between co-drivers and their impact on the cars, Roger said: “It won’t make much of a difference since both driver and co-driver should weigh more than 160 kilograms according to the regulations. If you have a light co-driver, you would have to add ballast weight to the car, which would improve the center of gravity, but it’s generally not a big deal.”
The 2015 edition of Rally of Lebanon sees the addition of a new stage in Toula, which according to Roger, is very nice and challenging; he also said that he last drove in Toula back in 2008 and that the last few kilometers of the stage were part of the 1996 or 1997 Spring Rally. New stages prove to give more challenges too.
Earlier this month, Abdo Feghali spoke up in a Q&A interview with Biser3a.com, which created a lot of controversy, especially concerning the relationship between the brothers.
Roger believes it is very important to have Abdo Feghali compete in Rally of Lebanon, but refused to respond to Abdo’s recent comments, especially regarding the issue of the Cedars’ Rally.
“Having Abdo in Rally of Lebanon, with or without Motortune Racing, is very important because, other than having a large fanbase, he’s a big name and he’s very fast. The more competitors we have in front, the better the rally is. With all due respect to other drivers, anyone can win the rally, but it’s different when you have fast drivers in front, they give a different taste to the rally.” said Roger.
He added: “Abdo chose not to contest the 38th Rally of Lebanon, and it’s his decision. I read his interview with your publication, and I have no response. I have many different answers, many different ways to answer and plenty of proof. If I say something, people will think that I’m annoyed or I’m trying to hide something or I’m trying to prove something, but I have nothing to prove. Motortune Racing is working with all drivers and giving its maximum to all drivers. Whoever has doubt can drive for another team.”
“Motortune Racing gave Dado everything, Dado and other than Dado. We give everything to all of our drivers.” he added when asked about the dynamics between the team and the drivers.
Other than aiming to clinch the Lebanese Rally Championship title for himself, Roger wants to secure other titles at the 38th Rally of Lebanon, including the Group N category title, with Motortune Racing driver Tamer Ghandour being a contender.
“Tamer’s performance was superb this year. He is focused and working hard, he made a mistake in the Cedars’ Rally but it happens. He also had mechanical trouble in the Spring Rally, which cost him time. Eddy Abou Karam also had a problem, which happens. The gap is big and not so big, but the biggest problem this year is the championship points system, which is very illogical. He has chances to win the Group N title, but his chances would’ve been better had he completed the Cedars’ Rally.”
Roger also believes Nicolas Amiouni is a top contender to fight for Group N glory in Rally of Lebanon, and that he has a great chance to win, considering he doesn’t have points to worry about since he skipped previous rounds of the season. Roger thinks Amiouni already proved that he’s one of the fastest in Group N in Lebanon.
In the front-wheel drive class, Motortune Racing also has a chance to secure the title with Robert Aaraj, but it is much slimmer in comparison its Group N chance.
“Robert has improved a lot over the years, he’s calm and focused, but the mistake he made in the Spring Rally cost him the championship in my opinion. The points gap [between Robert and Henry Massaad] is very big, so his chances are slim. He was great in the Cedars’ Rally, but could’ve been better in Jezzine compared to how good he was at the Spring Rally. We saw that he won three out of three Hill Climbs, so it’s not all about power in these R3 Cars (Renault vs Citroen), there’s setup, grip and lining. There’s hard work in every stage and Hill Climb, and Robert is reflecting that work. Hopefully it’ll be a good rally for him.”
Motortune Racing will be bringing upgrades to Robert’s Citroen DS3 for next year, but Roger has admitted that the car requires more improvements for this rally and that they have worked on them and implemented them.
According to Roger, the more the drivers in a category, the better the competition, because that would push every driver, co-driver and team, stating the Italian and French Rally Championships as great examples of competition, where more than 30 drivers compete in every class.
“Isn’t Henry improving? Isn’t Bassel Abou Hamdan improving? Rony Kanaan is also improving in the Hill Climb championship but he needs more time in rallying. In my opinion, the Lebanese Rally Championship is very short; four rounds are not enough; the championship should be longer and the stages should be longer, and this would push drivers to work harder.”
Motortune Racing’s Peugeot 208 R2 will be driven by Nassib Nassar at ROL this year; Roger said that Nassib is not new to the team as they’ve been racing together in Dubai for the past couple of years. Nassib wanted to try out the 208 R2 in Rally of Lebanon, according to Roger, who believes that R2 cars are the perfect choice for young drivers.
Patrick Njeim, Motortune’s youngest driver, will compete in the 2015 Rally of Lebanon onboard a Suzuki Swift Sport, but Roger reckons Patrick still has a lot to learn despite his big improvement.
“Patrick had a good year; he made a mistake in Jezzine, but it’s no big deal since he’s alone in his category. He’s too young, he’s still learning, he came from karting, which is a very different discipline. He’s receiving help from his father, and he’s always with us, he sits next to me and we’re always working hard. We have a long road ahead.”
However, Motortune Racing Academy’s target isn’t only Patrick Njeim, says Roger, it’s also working towards the future, and when asked about the support for the academy Roger stated:
“We have support from Suzuki and Motul, they’re helping us, but I don’t know whether it’s enough to have more than one car for upcoming years. We’re gonna have to work harder and find more sponsors for the academy.”
Gilbert Bannout and Joseph Hindy will also race for Motortune in ROL, driving a Fiesta RRC and Fiesta R5 respectively. However, the pair need more mileage to improve their pace, says Roger, who thinks that both drivers having their careers and living abroad is affecting them negatively, but he believes Bannout has made good progress after switching from an R5 to an RRC, while Hindy’s retirement from Jezzine Rally and Cedars’ Rally hurt his mileage.
When asked about their natural finishing positions in the rally and their chances to clinch a podium result, Roger answered:
“With these cars, Bannout and Hindy should be very competitive. We’re gonna have to wait and see the Group N drivers and how much they’ll be pushing, but I think both drivers have good chances.”
Switching to the memories of the Rally of Lebanon, and certainly, Roger has a lot of those, he revealed that Italians Alex Fiorio and Piero Liatti are two of the great drivers who came to Rally of Lebanon and left a great mark, he also mentioned Nasser Al-Attiyah, who’s made great progress since his first participation.
Some of Roger’s favorite moments in Rally of Lebanon were setting the second fastest time in the Mounsef stage onboard the Renault Clio Group N in 1998, finishing 20 seconds behind Mohammed Bin Sulayem, who drove a Ford Escort WRC back then.
Other great moments for Roger: the great fight between himself and Piero Liatti in the 2001 Rally of Lebanon, and in the 2007 Rally of Lebanon when it took Motortune Racing just 18 minutes to change a failed gearbox on his car, although it was known worldwide that a gearbox change for an Evo IX required around 30 to 35 minutes. Roger helped the team back then before the change and after the change.
Roger also discussed his great victory in 2010, when a drive shaft broke on his Skoda Fabia S2000 and he had to continue the race with front-wheel drive only, but the gap to his rivals was big enough for him to take it easy and cruise to a win.
Records and numbers don’t mean much to Roger, who competes just for the enjoyment, stating: “My target and my dream, before rallying in Lebanon, was to win the Lebanese Rally Championship and Rally of Lebanon, and now I have 11 titles in the Lebanese Rally Championship and 11 ROL victories, and I still have a chance to be in front again, but I really don’t look at records, I try take every rally as it comes, I try to do the maximum in every rally and to just enjoy myself, and this is what I’m doing.”
Roger’s domination makes some people wonder whether it ever gets boring to the 11-time Lebanese Rally Champion, but the driver has admitted that his ambitions are still very high.
“I wish I had the budget to compete in the European or World Rally Championship; it is not enough to compete in one or two WRC events, or even a full year. You need a proper program, with at least three years of competition: the first year to gain experience, the second year to further improve and the third year to try and win. It has taken every WRC champion at least three to five years.”
He added: “If I had the budget and the sponsors, I wouldn’t be here, but no, I’m not bored and I will continue to compete as long as I can. I think other drivers can benefit from my participation and my experience, they can learn a lot from not only Roger, but from Motortune Racing as well. So no, I’m not bored and I will compete for as long as I can.”
As the conversation reached an end Roger concluded stating:
“I hope there won’t be much of a difference between the cars in Rally of Lebanon. It’s going to be a very nice rally.”