I love this photo of the Red Bull Car Park Drift Middle East Regional Finals on November 8th, 2013 in downtown Dubai at the World Trade Centre. The event was 9pm till about midnight. We had VIP tickets right in the very front of the action and it was AMAZING! This pic captures the gorgeous scene that is Dubai and part of what was such an incredible night of awesome adrenaline pumping action!
Ali Al Balushi and Ali Al Shabaini were in Dubai representing the sultanate of Oman. Here Ali Al Balushi starts his run. He really was on fire (not literally, thank God!) on Friday night! He made it to the top 4 and so for the final round he really had to bring his game.
As you can see, Ali Al Balushi got 3rd place! Othman Al Takriti from Jordan came 2nd and he also got the Bridgestone award for Best Tire Smoke.
We thought the last 4 contenders were ALL incredible and it must have been a very hard decision for the judges!
The Middle East Regional winner of Car Park Drift for the Middle East – Jad Himo from Lebanon! This competition was one of the main events of the 2013 Dubai Motor Festival and was one of the highlights of my 1st trip (ever) to Dubai!
On our ride back to Muscat on Saturday afternoon, look whose car we ended up passing just after Sohar!
Thanks again to Stacey Ross from Red Bull in Oman and Nada Shabib (Communication Specialist for the UAE) for arranging VIP tickets for us! Folks, if you’re ever offered tickets (especially VIP!) to a Red Bull event, don’t pass up the opportunity! 🙂
Check out this video that Red Bull put together for media partners. It will give you a great idea of what it was like being there. If you want to jump to the action, the Winning Run starts at 4:28, followed by “Action Shots” (5:44-6:45) and a bit of Abdo Feghali’s drifting “Showcase” (6:46-7:03):
I’ll see if I can put the 2nd half of the video including podium shots when I get a chance.
Andy in Oman 