The Oman Automobile Association has laid on 13 demanding speed tests for the opening round of the 2026 FIA Middle East Rally Championship with competitors set to face over 215 competitive kilometres in a slightly revised route.
I first came to the Sultanate in 1990 and 1991 when the current FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem claimed the wins in a Toyota. In 1992, I worked with the Samarec Rally Team that went on to win the championship with Saudi driver Mamdouh Khayat in an ART Lancia Delta Integrale.
The following year, I came as a staffer with a PR Agency in Dubai and helped to manage the media centre and work on the Gulf Oil contract. Michel Saleh was the clear winner ahead of the late Richie Holfeld in a Mike Little-run Escort.
Regular visits ensued with the Victory Team in 1994 – when Suhail Bin Khalifa Al-Maktoum pushed Ben Sulayem to the limit – and then with the Royal Navy of Oman for sailing and fishing projects in 1994 and 1995. The delightful Al-Bustan Hotel was a highlight of those days.
I came again as media officer when the event returned to the FIA calendar in 1998 and then for a four-year stint between 2004 and 2007 in Seeb and Muscat, when I ran the English side of the media operation with Intevents and also worked for the Power Horse World Rally Team and Sheikh Khalid Al-Qassimi.
It was actually on this event, at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Muscat in May 2005, where I began to talk about wedding plans to my ex-wife Angela and we spent some extra days in Muscat after the rally.
I worked remotely on the rally in 2014, attended in 2015 and worked remotely again in plandemic times between 2020 and 2023. The 2024 event was cancelled because of the Israel-Iran situation but I attended again in 2025 and visited Sohar for the first time.
Nasser Saleh Al-Attiyah has won the event on eight occasions with five different co-drivers to Mohammed Ben Sulayem’s seven successes, three for Saeed Al-Hajri and two for local hero Abdullah Al-Rawahi. One-time winners include Michel Saleh, Tony Georgiou, Khalid Al-Qassimi, Abdulaziz Al-Kuwari and the late great Björn Waldegard.
Oman offers some of the finest special stages in the world, the people are warm and welcoming and it’s so nice to see clear blue skies away from the constant aerial bombardments of toxic chemicals we receive almost daily in western Europe and increasingly broken and misguided Britain.
