Arab Riders racing team is Kuwait’s first motorcycle racing team, the guys has been riding motorcycles all their live…they actually don’t remeber when was the first time they rode a motorcycle but what they do remember is that back in 2008 they decided to take their hobby a bit more serious.

I have known Mohamad Al Hadad and Fahad Al Owaish – the 2 guys behind the Arab Riders – for a couple of years and over a cup of coffee we had a serious chat -for a change-, i asked them a couple of questions about the hobby and their recent participation at the Qatar International Road Racing Championship.

Q: How did it all start ?
A: We used to ride with Kuwait BMW Club but our pace was a bit quicker and we wanted to race so with the help of  TriStar we established Kuwait Ducati Club, a club for Ducati owners that like speed as much as we do. Later on we decided to take our adrenaline addiction off the public roads and into a safe environment so we started organizing track days, attending racing classes at California Superbike School and finally last moth we participated at the Qatar International Road Racing Championship. Unfortunately we do not have track in Kuwait so we are chasing track days from Qatar to Dubai to Bahrain and Abu Dhabi.

I was browsing YouTube when i came across the Yas Marina Formula Drift YouTube channel, it has some great drift videos of local drift races and events, a lot of professional drivers like Tanner Foust, Mad Mike Whiddett and Fredric Aasbo participate in these events.

The final day was a heavy rain day but Nasser Al-Attiyah on his Autotek Ford Fiesta S2000 managed to win 11 of the 12 special stages in this 2 day race, thus claiming the Kuwait Rally and securing his fourth rally victory of the season and his 40th career win.

Frankly speaking there was no match for his driving skills or speed, the only driver that came a little bit closer was Al-Qassimi.
Finally i would like to thank Zain for giving us the chance to be so close to the action, and hope the next invitation would be a paddock pass for next week opening round of the 2011 MotoGP in Qatar .

It started with me waking up at 7am -it wasn’t easy i can tell you that- !

I headed to Costa Coffee Bidaa where i was supposed to meet up with the guys, where i ended having 2 coffees and a breakfast waiting for them to wake up and when they finally showed up they wanted to have coffee !! anyway we finally took off and after around 30min of driving we were in the middle of the action.

We found a good spot at an end of a straight were the races came flat out and took a left turn almost flat out and when i say flat out i mean a speed of +200km, we were so close to the cars that at one point when Nasser Al-Attiyah passed by we were like “thats it we’re dead” we got to meet and talk to him. Nasser Al-Attiyah is the champion of rally Dakar 2011.

You can check the results here and enjoy the video here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YD1ysk0nkcY

Ghada Al Faraj is young Kuwaiti female biker that has recently competed in the local round of the National Motocross Championship, i had a chance to meet Ghada and ask her a couple of questions

Name: Ghada Al Faraj
Age:15

Type and make of bike?
KTM, 85 cc, 2 stroke.

How did you get into riding dirt bikes?
Both my parents are bikers, and my summer job at TriStar was a huge inspiration.

What’s the hardest thing about motocross?
From a girls point, it’s competing with the guys and the high expectations from people being the only female.

What is it that drives you to compete?
The support from friends and family, i was never professionally trained but I wanted to learn more from the race.

Where did that competitive spirit come from?
My father.

What has been your greatest accomplishment?
Actually, finishing the race and not ranking last.

Do you have more fun racing the girls or the guys, in other words whose ass do you like kicking more?
Its been my first race and I was the only girl, so definitely it would be more fun racing with guys because its more competitive and I have the excuse of being the only girl

What would your dream race be?
Racing with girls, and a Kuwaiti girl whose my age.

Do other female athletes from other sports inspire you?
I was influenced by a couple of female freestylers.

What else do you do besides ride dirt bikes, hobbies, activities, travels?
I go to school!!

Is it difficult for women/girls to get sponsored to race?
I think its much easier for girls because girls’ dirt biking isn’t something you usually hear about especially around the Middle East.

Do you have any words for all the girls out there reading this?
Motor cross isn’t just a guy’s sport, so if you like a certain sport, nothing should stop you from pursuing it.

Is it fair to call you an adrenaline junkie?
Not really, I just ride because I enjoy it, but you definitely get a rush on the jumps and during the race.

Photos by Ibraheem Al-Sahood

By Davide Tardozzi

So the 2009 World SBK season is over.

We’ve won the constructors title, the Superstock 1000 category, have obtained 34 podiums with our Superbike riders and second and third place in the world championship. But it’s not enough and we go without the “cherry on the cake”. We believed that we could do it all year and until the last lap of the last race but unfortunately the rider’s title has escaped us.

I want to thanks, however, all the members of the team and those people at home who assist us day to day. Noriyuki and Michel have provided us with an emotional season and an hour after the end of the championship they were already looking ahead to this week’s test days, here at Portimao, in order to be even more competitive next year, to win a title that we lost by just a few points this time around.

At this point I would also like to address some comments that we have heard since the final race….Certainly, and we are well aware, that the decision to not stop Michel at Imola could have cost us dearly. But, after seeing how things went, I don’t think that this is the right moment to evaluate that situation.

In race 2 today Spies was clearly in control, knowing that he had the potential to fight for the podium but realising that a fifth position would be more than enough to win. One should also consider that Nori took second position during the final lap and Michel could not have known what was happening behind him.

Having said that I want to underline that we have confirmed Michel for 2010 after he’s achieved 15 podiums, including 3 wins and the third position in the overall standings behind the two “lions” Ben and Nori.

So, we’ll be back, more competitive than ever, next season. See you then….

Davide

And Rossi claims the 2009 world title…

On the other hand i truly believe that Stoner absences from the previous races made the job very easy to the Doctor, in the last 2 races Stoner was performing like never before…it was as if he was on a bike from a different class, the gap between him and rest of the racers was huge..and no one could get close to him.

Becuase of the rain, the race today did not have much action… hope the last race of the season be much more intresting.

Today’s race at Phillip Island was a classic, Stoner was in top physical condition giving the spectates a show to remember with his high speed slides, Rossi was trying every trick in the book to bypass him but the Australian was too fast and maintained the lead all the way to the checker flag.

Lorenzo crashed out at turn one of the first lap after touching Nicky Hayden bike, he was lucky to escape the crash with only a small injury to his pinky.

Dani Pedrosa gave us the usual bullet start today at Misano, but unfortntly he couldn’t maintain the lead because of Rossi’s pressure and some technical problems with his Honda engine -he said its misfiring-.

This is when Rossi came for revenge and he led the race all the way to the flag, even Lorinzo could not come near, Rossi had a new helmet today with a Donkey face on it….in italy -just like in the Arab world – if someone makes a mistake they call him a donkey, and after the mistake Rossi did last week which costed him the race he earned name was called a donkey but he decided to show everyone that this donkey can fly!!!

1) 12:45pm Super Bike race one Nurburgring round on Jazeera Sport 2 -free channel-

2) 14:35pm MotoGP Misano, Italy on Jazeera Sport 1 -free channel-

3) 16:15pm Super Bike race one two Nurburgring round on Jazeera Sport 2 -free channel-

Timing: Kuwait local time.