Sports

OAA delivered the first successful series during Khareef season

 
Salalah: The city has welcomed a great season of motorsport events first-ever held in

Dhofar, granting the people of Salalah an experience of a lifetime.

There were a number of activities that the public were able to take part in and join in as

the audience, from Drift to Karting to 4x4s to Digital car games, Bike rides and Supercar

shows.

OAA Managing Director, Suleiman al Rawahi, said: “What surprised me to be honest

was actually finding people who have never experienced any sort of motorsport activity,

adapting to them very fast. They’re enjoying it, because we’re doing it in a very

professional way, safety wise and in the way we take care of our customers, making

sure they come out with a big smile."

He added: “We’ve also been seeing a lot of repeated customers and we see this to be a

positive sign for the long run.”

The Salalah Grand Mall has been holding the Khareef Digital Motorsport Championship

series where the winners get to compete in the Oman MENA Digital Motorsport

Qualifier, in which two winners will be picked to participate in Jordan’s MENA Digital

Final in October.



The Kart races have become widely popular at Salalah’s Celebration Square over these

past few weeks, with a show of great skill and speed among the local drivers.

Delighted with the outcome of Car Park Drift, the first launch to Drift motorsports in

Dhofar, Brigadier Jamal bin Saeed al Taie, Vice-Chairman of the Board of Directors of

OAA, conveyed a few words in high spirits at the end of the series.

He said: “Thankfully, the public enjoyed the much-anticipated drift event, which was

held under the auspices of Shaikh Khalid bin Omar al Marhoon, in the presence of Wali of Salalah, a number of senior Royal Oman Police officers with an appearance from OAA’s Chairman Salim al Maskiry, as a large gathering of citizens, residents and visitors at Salalah Celebration Square joined in

to see the performances presented by the most skilled drivers.

“This highlights OAA’s goal to provide the best for our people in Muscat, Dhofar and the

rest of the Sultanate’s governorates with motorsport events coming up in the future.”

The Association’s Events Manager, Chris Hodgson, also added: “I think people were

blown away by the drifting and the skills of the drivers. It’s a very popular motorsport,

but they’ve only ever seen it on TV and YouTube, and never in real life. So, it was a

pleasure to present drifting to the locals there.

“And it’s good to see the Celebration Square, which is quite an ornate space, being

used again in the middle of Salalah for what it’s supposed to be. This is a celebration

and it’s a celebration square, so we were celebrating motorsports.”

There were a great range of supercars touring Dhofar, from Oman’s two

popular and fast-growing Supercar clubs, One More Drive and Supercar Majlis. The

people of Dhofar, including the passionate car lovers, got to witness the sleek sporty

cars as the clubs drove and stopped at various nature spots to showcase these exotic

automobiles.

OAA consistently persists with presenting enjoyable and entertaining motorsport events

for their audience every year, never compromising on the quality produced.

The Khareef Dhofar series has been partnered with and sponsored by the following

organisations: Sohar International, Sohar Bank, Oman Airports, Redbull Mobile, Motul

Oman, Mohsin Haider Darwish, SalamAir, Ministry of Culture, Sports and Youth, Ministry of

Heritage and Tourism, Salalah Municipality, Tulip Inn, Gang Plank, Salalah Grand Mall,

View Park and Khareef Dhofar.