The Zain Reem international race circuit in Saudi Arabia will play host to the Saudi Race Festival Thursday. The one-day motor sport extravaganza includes the first round of the 2010 Zain Lotus Cup and the Saudi Radical Championship. The first round of the Zain Lotus Cup Middle East will be held in conjunction with main sponsor Saudi Oger. It will sponsor two young Saudi drivers in the Lotus race, with a view to seeing them progress through the ranks of motor racing. Saudi Oger is also supporting drivers in the Saudi Karting League and several other motor sport championships. Other contenders for Zain Lotus glory include the Bison Reem Team and their driver Prince Mohamed Bin Faisal Bin Abdullah Bin Mohamed. Majed Al-Ghamdi is a regular competitor in special stage rallies and will take a break from his preparations for the forthcoming Saudi Ha'il Baja to drive in the opening round of the Lotus series. The RST Team will field Abdullah Al-Quain, the Big Wheels Team has entered Atef Al-Atef and there are also Lotus race entries from Al-Ghassan Motors, the Rahez Racing Team and Prince Saud Bin Turki Al-Faisal, and Saeed Al-Mouri, Hussam Al-Saleh. Thursday's Saudi Speed Festival will also include a round of the new Saudi Radical Championship. Qualifying will take place Thursday morning and the actual racing will start at 2:30 P.M., with the Zain Lotus race preceding the Saudi Radical Championship action. “Reem is quickly establishing itself on the map as a popular international motor sporting venue and we are delighted to be hosting a round of the Zain Lotus Cup Middle East and the Saudi Radical Championship,” said Prince Sultan Bin Bandar Al-Faisal, CEO of the Zain Reem international circuit. The Saudi Speed Festival has received valuable sponsorship from Zain, Toyota, Castrol, Bison energy drink and the Saudi Bin Laden Group of Companies not to forget Al-Ghassan Motors generous support to establish the Zain Lotus Cup Middle East. Qatar Rally begins today Defending FIA Middle East rally champion Nasser Saleh Al-Attiyah and Italian co-driver Giovanni Bernacchini will lead a 33-car field over the start podium of the Qtel Qatar International Rally on Doha's picturesque Corniche Thursday. The revised two-day, all-desert, special stage rally will kick-start another season of FIA Middle East Rally Championship action, with competitors from the GCC and as far afield as Australia, the UK, Ireland, Italy and France blazing a dusty and rocky trail between the opening Qatar round and the final event in the UAE in December. Other rallies will take place in Kuwait, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Syria and Cyprus. Al-Attiyah is chasing an eighth Qatar Rally win in as many years, having equalled Mohammed Ben Sulayem's seven successive wins in Jordan (1996 to 2002) last year, although the Emirati still holds the record after his unrivalled record in the Dubai Rally. __
