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.
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