ADTA has agreed a one-rally deal with Evgeniy Novikov, one of off-road motorsport’s bright, young talents, to pilot Ford Abu Dhabi World Rally Team’s third Ford Fiesta RS World Rally Car at next month’s Wales Rally GB – the 2011 World Rally Championship (WRC) season finale.
Russian Novikov, who has already raced for M-Sport Stobart Ford Rally Team this season, will steer Team Abu Dhabi’s points-scoring entry in place of regular driver, Sheikh Khalid Al Qassimi, who has domestic commitments during the emirate’s Etihad Airways Formula 1™ Abu Dhabi Grand Prix weekend – which falls on the same dates as Wales Rally GB, November 11-13.
Al Qasimi’s last event this season will be this weekend’s Rally Spain – the penultimate leg of the 13-event World Rally Championship (WRC) season. Having narrowly missed out on achieving his season’s primary objective of a top 10 drivers’ standings finish, Al Qassimi Qassimi must finish in the points in his Ford Fiesta RS World Rally Car, and at least two positions above Federico Villagra to edge the Argentine out of 11th place in the drivers’ rankings. For the Emirati, who clinched a career-best fifth-place and 10 points in Australia last month, anything is possible.
Since making his WRC debut in Wales in 2007, Novikov, 21, has forged a successful route through the world’s premiere off-road motorsport series. After a fifth-place finish in the Rally d’Italia Sardegna two years ago, the fearless star made rally history when he became both the first Russian and the youngest-ever driver to top the WRC time sheets in the first stage of the 2009 Acropolis Rally.
Novikov’s participation for Ford Abu Dhabi comes as his native Russia’s contribution to Abu Dhabi’s inbound tourism segment shows stellar growth, according to the latest guest figures released by ADTA. In the first eight months of 2011, the number of Russian visitors staying in the emirate’s hotels and hotel apartments rose 32 percent compared with the same period last year.
