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| Mishal Al-Naimi tests his bike at Le Mans as he bids to become the first Arab in MotoGP [QMMF] |
Beyond the glamour, the noise and the suspense of Valentino Rossi, Casey Stoner and the world's top motorbike riders lining up in Qatar this month, one detail stood out starkly.
Along with the Formula One Grand Prix in Bahrain, the Qatar MotoGP is a highlight of the sports calendar in the Middle East and evidence of Qatar's drive for a bigger slice of the global sporting pie.
But the 18 elite MotoGP riders lining up on the grid at Losail International Circuit, the 22 riders in the 250cc category and the 31 in the 125cc class all had one thing in common.
None of them were Arabs.
That, inshallah as they say in this Gulf state of 1.7million people, may be about to change.
Come the 2010 season, Qatar could claim another first in their increasingly impressive sporting roster.
World Cup dreams
They are the first Arab country to have a bid accepted for the football World Cup, the first country to host a night race in either MotoGP or F1, and the first to break the European hegemony in the FIM Endurance World Cup.
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| Al-Naimi will be on a steep learning curve if he makes the step up [QMMF] |
Now the star of the Qatar team in that triumph, Suzuki rider Mishal Al-Naimi, is gunning to be part of a new 600cc bike category in time for the 2010 MotoGP season.
"We have a plan now – to have the first Arabic rider at that level," Qatar's motorsport chief Nasser bin Khalifa Al-Attiyah told Al Jazeera.
"We have discussed that with Carmelo Ezpeleta, the chief executive of Dorna (MotoGP rights-holders), and he says he would wish to have a rider from Qatar in a 600cc category by 2010.
"Mishal's a talented guy who really proved in the endurance races that he's one of the best riders.
"Now we think he can have a chance in MotoGP.
"The level at the moment is higher than his level but we have to accept this challenge."
Al-Attiyah, president of Qatar Motor & Motorcycle Federation (QMMF), is the cousin of world rallying champion and Qatari icon Nasser bin Saleh Al-Attiyah.
Olympic family
Nasser, 39, won the Production World Rally Championship in 2006 and, in a somewhat bizarre display of multiple sporting talents, also finished fourth in skeet shooting at the 2004 Athens Olympics.
His older cousin was a rally champion himself before ascending to the QMMF presidency, and also played for the Qatar national football team in the 1980s.
"I was challenging him when we were racing but now I'm supporting him," says Al-Attiyah, 43, of his cousin.
"He deserves what he has achieved because he's a strong driver and very talented."
Few visitors to the Qatari capital Doha would be surprised at the country's rise in the world of motorsport.
Negotiating the city's C-Ring road can feel like accidentally straying onto a stockcar track – or, with all the 4x4s ploughing across the lanes, a monster truck rally.
Racing in their blood
"Motorsport has a strong culture here in the Gulf, even more than football," says Al-Attiyah.
"You find it everywhere in Qatar – people love speed.
"This is learned from Qatari parents. The first gift they give to the kids is a small car when he's one year old.
"In Brazil, the first gift they give a child is a football. In India it is cricket equipment.
"But as a Qatari grows up, each year they get a bigger and bigger car and that's where they catch the habit of really speeding."
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| Qatar winner Stoner chats with Al-Attiyah under Losail's desert lights [EPA] |
Al-Attiyah stresses that public roads are not the place to hone high-speed skills, and QMMF has toured Doha promoting safe driving in schools.
But they also hold open trial days at the Losail track where young speedsters can bid to be part of the drive for more Qatari heroes.
With the Bahrain Grand Prix in earshot across the Arabian Gulf, Qatar's priority is bikes.
"We're happy to see F1 in Bahrain – we are different here in Qatar," Al-Attiyah said hours after F1 driver Jenson Button had stormed to victory a 20-minute plane ride from Doha.
"From the beginning we chained our work to realities. We know Bahrain has F1, and maybe Abu Dhabi will get it too.
"We try to keep our calendar so that European spectators can see the MotoGP here and the F1 in Bahrain within a week or two.
"It's a big game of marketing."
Qatar were certainly not playing when they opened Losail International Circuit in 2004.
Lighting the way
Their work in defying scepticism to hold the first Grand Prix night race in March last year was rewarded when they were named Best GP of 2008 – an honour that has only twice gone to tracks outside Europe.
"When we had a night race in MotoGP we changed history," says Al-Attiyah.
"In football, when it all used to be in the daytime, now to have lights is routine. We have pioneered this in motorsport."
The award, voted for by riders and their teams, is a massive endorsement of every aspect of the Losail circuit – from the lighting to logistics.
Not least of those aspects is safety, with International Road Racing Teams Association president Hervé Poncharal declaring it the safest circuit in the world this month.
"We have a huge safety track, so it gives riders a better chance to reach higher levels on the bike than tracks that have a wall," says Al-Attiyah. Only good news for speed addicts and perfectionists like Rossi and Stoner.
Al-Attiyah's passion for motorsport is driving Qatar forward as it emerges into the sporting world.
But in a display of humanity rarely seen amid the revving, the swagger and the glitz of Grand Prix, his love of racing is touched with a regret of its risks.
"It's a hard responsibility to be in motorsport," he says.
"Sometimes we find happy days and sometimes sad days. Sometimes we have injuries – big crashes and big injuries.
"We have a project to attract Qatari drivers and build local heroes. But we must protect them and avoid accidents, right from the start."
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