FIA Middle East Rally Champioinship

The Kuwait Motor Sport Club (KMSC) has announced details of the 2009 Kuwait International Rally, which returns to the FIA Middle East Rally Championship for the first time since 1996 and forms the second round of the increasingly-popular eight-round series. The event will take place on March 5th-7th, in the desert near Kuwait City, and will be the 150th rally in the history of the regional championship, which began with the Qatar Rally in 1984.

Kuwait's return to the regional motor sporting spotlight will run under the patronage of His Excellency Sheikh Nasser Al-Mohammed Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah, the Prime Minister of the State of Kuwait, and under the presidency of Sheikh Ahmad Bin Dawood Al-Sabah, president of the KMSC and chairman of the organising committee.

Kuwait was an integral round of the regional rallying calendar throughout the 1980s, but hostilities in neighbouring Iraq forced the event out of the championship at the end of 1989. It returned to the calendar in 1995 and 1996, but has been absent from the region's premier motor sport calendar for 12 years. The KMSC ran a popular candidate event in 2008 and the FIA duly included the rally in the championship calendar for 2009.

"We are delighted to regain our place in the FIA Middle East Rally Championship," said Sheikh Ahmad Al-Dawood Al-Sabah, President of the KMSC. "Last year's event was well received, but we have visited several other rallies in the region since last March and I attended the recent Qatar Rally to meet other event officials and teams. We are continuously improving the format of our rally and I am confident that our return to the championship will be at the high standard of former rallies held in Kuwait and other leading rounds of the regional series."

The KMSC will run in the region of 250km of special stages on Friday, March 6th and Saturday, March 7th. Jordanian Walid Mihyar has been appointed rally manager and clerk of the course for a second term and is busy finalising the last minute timetable for an event which is sure to attract the cream of the region's rally drivers.

The rally will start at 4pm on Thursday, March 5th and also finish under the world-renowned Kuwait Towers. The KMSC have also introduced a 3.5km super special stage that will be used twice - at the start and finish of the rally. This will take place at the Jaber Al-Ahmad International Circuit in Kuwait City and is the first permanent super special stage in the Middle East region. Action will be filmed live by Kuwait's KTV3 channel during the course of rally weekend, with the opening super special stage firing into life at 4.30pm on Thursday afternoon.

The event will be based at the Kuwait Shooting Club for a second year, where race officials and the event's media centre will be based throughout the week. The service park, parc fermé and scrutineering will also be centred at the club. Reconnaissance of the special stages will be permitted on Tuesday, March 3rd and Wednesday, March 4th.

The KMSC will offer international and GCC competitors six nights' hotel accommodation in Kuwait and officials are currently finalising a potential deal on return air tickets for crews.

Previous winners

*ran as an MERC candidate event and not a round of the MERC