Tony Germany Rally Skills also known as “TG Rally Skills” team is preparing to tackle the International Rally of Lebanon, which is the fourth of the 2013 Middle East Rally Championship and is held between the 5th and 8th of September.
No doubt that this team, founded and supervised by Tony Germany, knows the difficulty of the tasks it is facing; although it’s not even three years old yet, its dreams and ambitions are big, and so Germany says: “We don’t live without dreaming, and those who don’t dream don’t progress, and we dream of finding the funding to get highly-ranked cars (RRC or R5), but that is not possible at the moment due to these cars’ steep price which is almost half a million euros.”
Despite the financial barrier, the team is working non-stop to carve its name at the top of special stages, hill climbs and speed tests; it will also be ready for the 36th Rally of Lebanon with 5 cars: Joseph Hindy (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 10), Eddy Abou Karam (Evo 10), Emile Abou Karam (Evo 9), Robert Aaraj (Renault Clio R3) and Tony Abi Gebrayel (Evo 9).
“We started the year in good shape with Joseph Hindy, who competed for second place at the Spring Rally, before dropping back due to a mechanical problem, and Eddy Abou Karam who took third place overall, while Hindy made a great return at the Summer Rally by setting quickest stage times before retiring alongside Eddy.” Summarizing his drivers’ achievements this season, Germany said: “We won the F2 title in the Lebanese Rally Championship with Robert Aaraj who dominated the category at the Spring Rally and Cedars Rally, while Henry Massaad took the same class win at the Summer Rally after having his car prepared by TG Rally Skills.”
And during the third round of the 2013 Lebanese Hill Climb Championship, Hindy finished 2nd and Eddy 3rd in the Group N class, as Robert Aaraj scored second place in the front-wheel drive class, having won the previous two rounds, to clinch the FWD class title in both the rally and hill climb championships.
Germany confirmed that his team started preparations for the 36th Rally of Lebanon after the Cedars Rally, but the biggest problem or the “weakest point” the team is facing is not preparing the cars, but preparing the drivers and co-drivers because Robert Aaraj, Joseph Hindy and Tony Abi Gebrayel all work outside of the country which makes it hard to prepare for sporting events. Germany said: “3 days of preparations for one of the rallies is not enough, with the exception of the Spring Rally, time was against us in terms of preparations, and the same problem has occurred for Rally of Lebanon because the drivers can’t make it way before the rally starts.”
Love and familiarity are the predominant atmospheres at TG Rally Skils, thanks to Joseph Kmeid’s, the technicians’, the mechanics’, drivers’ and co-drivers’ efforts. Tony continued by saying: “We hope we can solve the time issue next year, a driver doesn’t gain experience without lots of practice. We are working and preparing the cars without any problems, and we’re working on improving their performances, and people are witnessing that, it is not me who is saying that…”
Regarding Thursday’s super special stage, he said: “We’ve been asking for a super special stage for 3 years now, the rally is one thing and the super special stage is another thing. We hoped it would’ve been repeated twice due to its media and crowd attraction.”