After Friday’s unfortunate accident we were not able to continue,” said the Kuwaiti. “But we look forward to Baja Portalegre where we are still in a fight for the championship. We can drop our two worst events. It is going to be difficult but we are there to fight.”
South Racing Can-Am Team’s manager Scott Abraham said: “Once again, it was a great event for the South Racing Can-Am Team and a brilliant job by two of our teams to secure the top two spots on the podium. It showed that the Can-Am was the fastest and most reliable SSV in the field. It was fantastic for Alex and Pedro to wrap up the inaugural European Cup. But it will be a nail-biting finale in Portugal with Saleh and Mshari going head-to-head to try and win the FIA World Cup. South Racing has also wrapped up the FIA T4 Teams’ Championship, as well as the European Cup.
“Now we have some big weeks of work ahead of us with the Rally of Morocco with a big entry at the start of October.”
Competitive action for the South Racing Can-Am Team began with the 7.55km Meduna qualifying stage on Friday lunchtime. Al-Saif pipped Al-Thefiri and Ré to the T4 win by just 1.2 and 2.1 seconds respectively, with Amerigo Ventura in fourth place.
“There was some very deep water in four or five places,” admitted Al-Thefiri’s co-driver Al-Kuwari. “The car was full of water. Our overalls were wet. But it was a good start.”
The starting order was duly arranged for the first of four selective sections, with teams tackling 74.94km across nearby riverbeds and flood plains on Friday afternoon. Al-Saif recorded a stage time of 1hr 09min 47sec but that dropped the Saudi into second at the night halt behind Ventura. Ré was third but Al-Thefiri suffered a costly retirement after an accident that severely dented his title ambitions.