Mechanical woes cost AZ Racing Dubai International Baja podium
Despite problems, Al Zubair and Al Kuwari managed to come away from the Dubai International Baja sixth in class
DUBAI: Omani rally driver Abdullah Al Zubair and AZ Racing teammate Nasser Al Kuwari endured a true character-building visit to Dubai over the weekend, during a frustrating second round of the FIA World Cup for Cross Country Baja’s season.
Going into the event second in the standings and determined to make it two T3 class podiums from as many Baja events, a promising opening leg on Friday, 8th March, which concluded with the squad third in class, was ruined during leg two on Saturday, by a series of mechanical woes.
Despite differential problems just metres from the start, followed by driveshaft failure before reaching one quarter distance of the 205 kilometre stage, Al Zubair and Al Kuwari still managed to come away from the Dubai International Baja sixth in class, salvaging much-needed points.
After the ceremonial start at Dubai Autodrome on Thursday, 7th March, the opening leg on Friday was eagerly awaited and the Al Qudra desert terrain certainly provided the expected stern test for all of the crews.
Al Zubair and Al Kuwari got their rally underway at 07.20 local time and went on to finish the stage third in T3, roughly 15 minutes off the class lead after more than three hours of intense action across 200 kilometres.
Saturday’s stage was contested over a fractionally longer distance of 205 kilometres and the AZ Racing team-mates were confident in mounting a significant push to catch the top two in class, and challenge for their second top two finish in as many Bajas.
Incredibly, those hopes were then dashed with the early differential breakage on their BRP Can-Am Maverick X3, meaning they had to continue with power through only two wheels.
Battling on with great tenacity, at the 40 kilometre point, the rear driveshaft then failed which meant power was only being transferred through a single wheel.
As a result, the car got stuck on a sand dune and as Al Zubair and Al Kuwari attempted to free the vehicle it flipped onto its side. Rather than incur a costly non-finish, they sensibly crawled the No.320 entry directly back to the finish of the rally knowing any penalties incurred as a result, no matter how large, would still enable them to score points – ultimately taking sixth in T3.
Abdullah Al Zubair said, “We had a good start to the rally, it was a short and fast two days of racing and it was the first time I’d driven the Can-Am on sand. Unfortunately, we faced a lot of technical problems during the rally and while I am, of course, not happy with the results, this is a long championship and we are still second overall. We learned a lot here and we’re looking forward to the next race.” Nasser Al Kuwari said, “It was a short sprint Baja with only 200 kilometres per day and we were very fast as usual, even with only twowheel drive, Abdullah overtook three cars. It’s unfortunate what happened to us but that’s racing and we are happy with our performance, if not the results. At least now we have a good set-up for the sand, we’re looking forward to the rest of the championship.”
There is now a break of three months in the FIA World Cup for Cross Country Bajas calendar, with the third round of the season taking place between Thursday, 20th June, and Sunday, 23rd June, in Italy.