Girish Mahajan (Editor)

Middle East Rally Championship

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Category
  
Group N Super 2000

Inaugural season
  
1984

Country
  
Middle East

Drivers' champion
  
Nasser Al-Attiyah

Middle East Rally Championship wwwfiacomsitesdefaultfileschampionshippage

The Middle East Rally Championship (MERC) is a motor rally championship run under the auspicies of the FIA. First held in 1984 the championship encompasses a series of rallies held across Western Asia. The championship has featured long-running events like Rally of Lebanon, Rally Oman and the Troodos Rally in Cyprus as well as World Rally Championship event Jordan Rally. Many of the rallies in the region pre-date national independence, mostly from the United Kingdom thus the championship could be seen as a legacy of British (and French in the case of Lebanon) colonialism.

Contents

The championship has been dominated by remarkably few competitors. Mohammed bin Sulayem is a 14-time champion and reigning champion Nasser Al-Attiyah has won 12 times. Between them they have won over 60% of events in thirty-year history of the championship.

The current season includes events in Qatar, Kuwait, Iran, Lebanon, Cyprus, Jordan, Oman and the United Arab Emirates. The championship has also visited Bahrain, Syria and Saudi Arabia.

2015 fia merc kuwait international rally


List of events

  • Qatar International Rally (1984–present)
  • Kuwait International Rally (1984–85, 1987–89, 1995–96, 2009-present)
  • Bahrain International Rally (1984, 2000–02, 2004–05)
  • Jordan Rally (1984–88, 1990, 1992–present)
  • Oman International Rally (1984–88, 1990–94, 1998, 2004-07, 2015–present)
  • Dubai International Rally, United Arab Emirates (1984–88, 1990–95, 1997–present)
  • Rally of Lebanon, (1987–88, 1991-2004, 2006-present)
  • UAE International Rally, United Arab Emirates (1989, 1995-2001, 2004–06)
  • Tour of Cyprus, (1998-1999)
  • Troodos Rally, Cyprus, (2000-2009, 2011)
  • Syria International Rally, (2001–05, 2007–10)
  • Cyprus Rally, (2007–08, 2010, 2012–present)
  • Sharqia Rally, Saudi Arabia, (2010)
  • Shiraz Rally, Iran, (2015–present)
  • 2012 season

    The 2012 events and winners:

    2011 season

    The 2011 events and winners:

    2010 season

    The 2010 events and winners:

    Rally winners

    197 Rallies (after Qatar 2017), 37 different winner, following are the winners stats:

    23 drivers have won one round of the MERC;
    Charalambous Thimotheou (CY), Amjad Farrah (HKJ), Andreas Peratikos (CY), Chris Thomas (CY), Samir Ghanem (RL), Abdullah Al-Qassimi (UAE), Abbas Al-Motaiwi (QA), Nasser Khalifa Al-Attiyah (QA), Hamed Bin Eid Al-Thani (QA), Maurice 'Bagheera' Sehnaoui (RL), Tony Georgiou (RL), Alex Fiorio (I), Piero Liatti (I), Russell Brookes (GB), Alain Oreille (F), Nizar Shanfari (OM), Nicos Thomas (CY), Rashed El-Ketbi (UAE), Khalid Al Suwaidi (QA), Nicolas Amiouni (RL), Tamer Ghandour (RL), Rodolphe Asmar (RL), Rashid El-Naimi (QA).

    Wins per nationality

    After Qatar 2017

    and 1 win for Oman, Jordan, France and Great Britain.

    References

    Middle East Rally Championship Wikipedia