Abu Dhabi candidate to a WRC round in 2011

The capital of the United Arab Emirates, Abu Dhabi wants to organize in 2011 a round of the World Rally Championship. In December 2010 the city will host a candidate event using Super 2000-spec cars.

Expectations of Rally Abu Dhabi’s bosses are high on grabbing a spot on the 2011 WRC calendar as the rally will be one of next year’s non-championship events hosted by several candidates and being supervised by FIA.

The emirate is already involved in the WRC with its title sponsorship of factory Ford WRC team, which runs UAE driver Sheikh Khalid al Qassimi alongside Finns Mikko Hirvonen and Jari-Matti Latvala.

According to Sheikh Sultan bin Tahnoon al Nahyan, chairman of the Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority (ADTA), in an interview to The National newspaper, “staging a round of the off-road series in the UAE was always the long-term plan”.

Al-Ain and Qasr-al-Sarab in the Liwa Desert in the Empty Quarter, outside Abu Dhabi, were the places chosen to host the stages of the candidate event in December.

Ahmed Hussain, of the ADTA is confident that the Rally Abu Dhabi will appeal competitors because the event will be run to Super 2000 regulations just weeks before the first S2000 WRC round, offering a combination of new cars, a new rally and new stages.

Hussain is also confident that “the relationship with the teams, drivers, manufacturers has developed in the last couple of years and they want to support us by being part of Rally Abu Dhabi in 2010”