Regional motorsport history is ‘embedded in Bahrain’

TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com 

Staff Reporter

The rise of motorsport in the region is a massive boost for the international motor racing industry, according to nine-time World Rally Champion and Bahrain Raid Xtreme (BRX) ace Sebastien Loeb.

“There are lots of races in this part of the world now; I think the place is really good for this,” Loeb told TDT.

“There is a big passion for motorsport in this region, and it’s good to go to a place where people love what we are doing.”

BRX team director David Richards highlighted that it all started in Bahrain and that the Kingdom will always be motor racing’s home in the Middle East.

Richards told TDT: “The whole region is building its influence in motorsport around the world—Mohammed Ben Sulayem becoming the president of the FIA, with new Grands Prix in Saudi and Qatar—but history tells us Bahrain was the first, and you can never take that away from Bahrain.

“We were first here with rallies, many years ago, when I came to do rallies in 1976; the hill climb was here, the karting, and the first Grand Prix circuit in the region was here.

“That history is embedded in Bahrain.

No one can forget that and they should be reminded of that. Bahrain is the home of motorsport in the whole region.”