After 15 years of taking part in desert rallies, Ahmed Al Fahim is finally getting the credit he deserves.
This year the Emirati driver won two rounds out of six on the way to a second-place finish at the Emirates Desert Challenge (EDC). It was only the start of a memorable season.
Al Fahim followed it up with an eighth-place finish at the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge, the second round of this year’s FIA World Cup for Cross Country Rallies for cars.
He was the highest-placed Emirati, but even more impressively he achieved this riding solo in a buggy and beat the factory teams’ lorries and bikes.
“This year it was more competitive, more participants in my class,” he said of the EDC. “There’s a new track in Umm Al Quwain, it was a tough track and race. The organisation was good, it gathered a lot of people who are interested in these kinds of races in the UAE.”
For Al Fahim, it proved excellent preparation for the bigger challenges ahead.
“It’s a good school for international racing like the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge,” he said. “We improved a lot during these past two seasons. This season I was lucky to get sponsorship from Polaris, the manufacturer of the vehicle I’m using. We are a team of three drivers and we won the top three positions.”
Due to injury, only two of the drivers entered the Desert Challenge.
“We achieved an amazing result, I came first and my colleague came second in our category,” Al Fahim said. “In the Desert Challenge a lot depends on the whole team. Yes, I am fast but I need a good service team, good mechanics, a good machine that can survive. It’s a 2,000-kilometre race, so it’s very tough.”
Al Fahim’s Desert Challenge turned out to be a dramatic one. He started Day 1, from Abu Dhabi to Qasr Al Sarab, well and was placed second after he first 50km.
“But then I had some overheating and electrical problems so I had to stop a couple of times in the race to fix them.”
He lost over an hour to finish fifth. Overnight, the mechanics found the solutions, and Al Fahim was told to go for broke on Day 2.
“I had to improve my time,” he said. “I reached the leader on 80km, so I stayed with him. This was part of the strategy. Then he stopped and I cruised and finished first in my category with a gap of 40 minutes.”
He still needed to make up time lost from Day 1. Al Fahim did that, finishing first in his category and a creditable ninth overall.
“This is interesting because my car is a lightweight vehicle, the smallest engine category,” Al Fahim said. “That was very impressive for anyone who knows these types of races.”
His joy did not last; after the race he was hit with a three-hour time penalty. “That meant I’m basically out of the competition, you cannot make up three hours,” he said.
Al Fahim protested and a Al Fahim review was promised ahead of Day 4. Luckily, it turned out to be a miscalculation.
“I discovered the decision in the middle of the race,” he said. “I still had my leading time. So I took it easy and I finished first in my category and eighth overall.”
The fifth day was cancelled due to a major sandstorm, but a different kind of storm was brewing for Al Fahim after the race. “The French team Polaris, our biggest competitor, had a problem with us,” he said.
“It seems they complained about the removal of the penalty. They also complained that someone from our team cut some wires in their cars. It was very childish. They couldn’t find anything and I won the race. They still went and complained in France to the FIA.”
The Emirati is weighing up his options with tackling the world’s most famous cross-country rally being mooted.
“We’re taking it step by step,” he said.
“We won the Desert Challenge and now there is talk to go internationally, to Dakar and maybe other races. We’ll meet soon with my team and sponsors to decide what to do next.”
akhaled@thenational.ae
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