Rahhala, the first professional motorsports squad in Egypt, is currently competing in cross country rallies in preparation for the 16th edition of the annual cross country rally held every year in the Egypt Pharaohs Rally. This year's 2013 rally will take place from 28 September to 5 October. The race is a round trip to the wonderful Pyramids of Giza along almost 3,000 kilometres in the Egyptian Western Desert. Chief engineer and head of operations of Rahhala Osama Hamdi told Al-Ahram Weekly that each international rally offers points that differ in the classification of the world rankings. “It is too difficult for our budget to travel abroad to compete in international rallies but we have a good chance to participate in the annual Pharaohs Rally held in Egypt.” “Preparation for the rally started last year after the end of the Pharaohs rally 2012. I take notes on all that happens during the race and I try to fix the problems. The preparation includes repairing, buying new spare parts from aboard and equipment.” In last year's rally, Rahhala participated with three cars. The “classic category” Toyota Fortuner was driven by Tarek Ayoub and co-pilot Fathallah Barakat who succeeded in notching first place. In the two-wheel drive category, Tarek El-Erian and his co-pilot Mohamed Ali took third and ninth overall. In the four-wheel drive category Hani Omar and his co-pilot Akram El-Sherif finished in sixth place and 18th overall. Rahhala made history by winning free invitation to compete in the international Dakar Challenge of 2012 after achieving decent results in the Pharaohs rally 2012. “The Dakar challenge is one of the most expensive rallies. It is held over 14 days and costs a lot for entry fees, accommodation, changing spare parts, transportation of the drivers and cars”, said Hamdi. This was the first time ever for an Egyptian team to compete in the Dakar rally. The race took place across the tough terrain of three counties – Peru, Argentina and Chile. El-Erian and his co-pilot Ali faced saw their motor explode after the second stage. “From every international cross country rallies around the world the winner who achieves best results and has not participated in the Dakar and never featured on the International Automobile Federation (FIA) list of priority drivers, The winner will receive a free trip to compete in the rally. We paved the way for any Egyptian team to participate,” added Hamdi. “What's new this year in the Pharaohs rally,” Hamdi said, “is that's it's going to be a local pharaohs rally in parallel with the international pharaohs rally. Rahhala will participate in both of them. The two rallies will have the same start line but the local rally will stop at a certain stage. Only the international race will give points in the world rankings.” Hamdi graduated from the faculty of engineering, at the automotive and locomotive engineering department at Helwan University. His graduation project was Formula Student, a student engineering competition held annually in the UK. Student teams from around the world design, build, test and race a small-scale formula style racing car. Hamdi was on one of the first Egyptian and African teams to build and design the first Arab formula racing car. “El-Erian admired my work. I have been working with Rahhala for two years now. It is the first rally team in Egypt to employ full-time mechanical engineers who get a salary. It's not volunteer work.” The Rahhala Racing team is composed of 24 members: pilots Omar, Al-Erian, Tarek Ayoub co-pilots Mohamed Ali, Fathallah Barakat and Hani Madbouli substituted by Akram El-Sherif. Team management, chief engineer, logistics, mechanics, media coordinator and production, marketing and communication round up the efforts. On the national level, Egypt has three or four rallies held yearly. In the third edition of El-Gouna Rally Cup 2013, the rally was held for two days from 29 to 31 March west of El-Gouna, at the Red Sea mountains. Rahhala's pilot Omar and co-pilot El-Sherif finished fourth in the overall standings because of what they said was a mechanical problem. In El-Remal Challenge Rally 2013, Omar co-pilot Hani Madbouli driving a Toyota Fortuner T2 took first place overall with an almost three hours difference ahead of second place. The rally was held for two days from 30 April to 1 May in Baharyia desert with the participation of 10 local teams. The total distance of the rally was 400 kilometres. The Rahhala team is sponsored by Toyota Egypt. Rahhala peviously won the Manufacturers Cup for Toyota Egypt. It is currently leading the national championship with 37 points after their dazzling performance in El-Gouna and El-Remal rallies. Toyota is also leading the Manufacturers Cup for the season 2013 by 37 points. On why Egypt does not have junior drivers for rallies, Hamdi explained, “Driving in the desert is too difficult. Juniors in the beginning need first to learn how to kart. Unfortunately, karting is not big enough in Egypt.”
