The Oman International Rally kickstarts another season of Middle East rallying when it gets underway from the Sohar Entertainment Centre (SEC) today.
Organised by the Oman Automobile Association (OAA), the opening round of the 2025 FIA Middle East Rally Championship (MERC) has attracted a field of 16 teams and competitors from nine countries, in addition to six crews competing in the Oman National Rally Championship.
The event is being run under the chairmanship of Brigadier Jamal Said Al-Tai, organising panel member Suleiman Al-Rawahi and Rally Director Anwar Al-Zadjali. Three recent Middle East champions head a star-studded regional field, who will tackle 13 special stages and 232.39 competitive kilometres over the event’s three days.
The MERC event moved to the Al-Batinah North Governorate and the city of Sohar for the first time, although it was a national event that took place 12 years ago. All six gravel stages to the west of Sohar are brand new but have not lost the legendary fast and flowing nature of the stunning terrain on offer in the Sultanate.
As Chris Hodgson, the Chairman of the Organising Committee, explained: “This is a completely new route, but it is very typically Oman, with wadis, hills, and loose gravel. The stages are located halfway between Muscat and the border with Dubai. Sohar is the main shipping center for Oman and, perhaps, the fastest-growing city in the country.
“The stages may look easy, but they aren’t. There are a lot of places that could catch people out. In places, it is quite narrow and punctures are always a risk out there. We are the Oman Automobile Association and not the Muscat Automobile Association and we wanted to take the sport to the people.
“The Sohar Municipality have been massively supportive and have done everything they can to make it happen. We have worked closely with them and called upon their support for the supply of around 5,000 tonnes of recycled gravel for stage grading.”
Top seed Abdulaziz Al-Kuwari finished his first-ever Dakar Rally in fourth place in the Challenger category last week. Still, the defending regional champion must revert to special stage mode quickly this weekend. He wheels out a QMMF-backed Citroën C3 and has recruited the services of Irish co-driver Lorcan Moore.
Likewise, Nasser Saleh Al-Attiyah participated in the recent Dakar Rally and finished fourth with his French navigator Edouard Boulanger. The pair retain their partnership for the Qatari’s quest for a record eighth win in Oman in an Autotek Motorsport-run Škoda Fabia RS. Boulanger is making his MERC debut.
Oman’s Abdullah Al-Rawahi and his Jordanian co-driver Ata-Hmoud are also running an Autotek Škoda as the local hero and 2023 regional champion attempts to complete a hat-trick of wins on his home rally.
The QMMF has also supported an entry for Rashed Al-Muhannadi, who runs a Peugeot 208 Rally4 with backing from the Qatar Motorsports Academy. Irishman Gary McElhinney has competed in countries as diverse as the USA, Spain, Tanzania, Zambia, and Barbados and will read the pace notes for the Qatari for the first time.
Rakan Al-Rashed is one of the leading rally drivers in the Middle East but has carved his recent reputation away from the MERC. The 35-year-old Saudi teams up with Portugal’s Hugo Magalhães in a new Toyota GR Yaris Rally2, as he tries to upset the regular contenders in the series on his return to regional action. In 2024, the duo tackled rallies in Sweden, Portugal, Finland, and Latvia and won the Finnish Jari-Pekka Ralli outright in their Printsport Toyota. A fifth Rally 2 machine will be in the hands of Qatari veteran Nasser Khalifa Al-Atya and his Lebanese co-driver Ziad Chebab.
Six teams will be chasing MERC2 honours in a fleet of Subarus and Mitsubishis. The Jordanian duo of Shadi Shaban and Issa Al-Shorafa lead the way against Oman’s Abdullah Al-Zubair and Zakariya Al-Aamri, Lebanon’s Ahmad Khaled, and India’s Mohamed Mansoor Parol.
Shadi El Fakih wheels out last year’s MERC5-winning Renault Clio Rally4 competition for Al-Muhannadi comes from the Indian pairing of Payyaakkal Panikkaveettil and Musa Sherif in their Ford Fiesta.
There are also a pair of eligible T4 Can-Ams in the field for Saudi Arabia’s Ibrahim Al Muhanna and Yosra Jazzar. Neither Hamza Bakhashab nor Issa Abu Jamous registered for the pre-event reconnaissance sessions, although they were present on the original entry list.
Today (Thursday), the official pre-event press conference (15.00hrs) precedes the ceremonial start at the Sohar Entertainment Centre (15.30hrs). The start will occur indoors for the first time under the giant dome on site. Competitors will tackle the opening 2.55km Super Special stage, starting at 16.43hrs.
