A sheikh in snow rain              23.05.2005

The 24h race at the nurburgring attracts drivers from far countries. So it does attract sheikh Jaber bin Ali Al Khalifa from Bahrain. A few days after the event racing1.de talked to the fast son of the desert.
Scheikh Jaber bin Ali Al Khalifa can look back to a successfull motorsport career for more than 20 years where he drove in all kinds of motorsports events from desert rallies to mountain- and trackraces or cartraces. Not only fast, but extremly fast is Al Khalifa in his normal life: he is pilot of a F16 fightjet in his homecountries' army.

His friend Ingolf Raiss from Ralliart Germany told him from the 24h race. After he made full use of reading motorsport newspapers, he was enthusiastic for this event. At first he saw the races as spectator. Contrary to other drivers who think they can drive the 24h at the nurburgring without track knowledge, Al Khalifa prepared and made himself fit with the help of Uwe Nittel.

In 2005 he started in the team of Andreas Herwerth, together with Nittel and Werner Gusenbauer in the 24h race at the nurburgring. As preparation he wanted to drive also in the long distance championship, but the first two races were cancelled due to foggy and snowy conditions and we think the son of the desert should have get 2 cups for the longest unnecessary travel.

The 24h race went very well for him and his partners, without any scratches or bumps they absolved the wet and cold laps and in the end they reached a very respectable 25th place overall with a standard BMW M3. "I came to learn and I'm very very satisfied, we had a perfect race. After this year of learning we want to start in future with a stronger car", resumed the sheikh and goes on: "you can't compare driving under rainy conditions with driving through sand, but on more than 80% of the laps I absolved at the Nordschleife it was raining and so I might become the rain specialist of the middle east."

His motorsport aims are the Porsche Supercup at the Grand Prix Bahrain, the FIA GT-championship 24-hours-race in Dubai which should take place in January, where they don't expect snowy conditions.

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