Triple 2008 FIA champion Nasser Al-Attiyah has ended his six year association with Subaru and will rally Mitsubishis this year, starting with his home event, the Qatar Rally (22-24 January). In addition to his cross country sport titles gained with BMW, Nasser has won the FIA's Middle East Rally Championship five times and gained one PCWRC world title with Subaru cars run by the British company Autotek. In 2009 he will be codriven on rallies by Tina Thorner, his regular off road rally partner, and the team will be run by the Austrian national champion Raimund Baumschlager. Autotek continue their agreement with Qatar by running Qatari driver Misfer
Al-Marri in the MERC with Nasser's previous rally codriver Chris Patterson in a Subaru N14.

Baumschlager's company BRR is also to run Skoda Fabia S2000 cars in the FIA Production Car world rally championship for Patrik Sandell, who was the 2006 FIA World Junior Rally Champion, and Baumschlager will assist Skoda in development work on the Fabia S2000. Last year BRR ran the Mitsubishi of the PCWRC world champion Andreas Aigner. Aigner had been running under Red Bull colours in a five year contract which expired at the end of 2008, and Sandell's entry will take over Red Bull sponsorship.

The UAE's Sheikh Khalid Al-Qassimi is likely to be Al-Attiyah's main rival in the absence of Roger Feghali and Al-Qassimi returns to the Qatar Rally for the first time for two years with regular Ulster co-driver Michael Orr in a Subaru Impreza N14. His brother Sheikh Abdullah Al-Qassimi has also entered the event with Steve Lancaster and bolsters a strong UAE contingent that also includes Michel Saleh and a pair of junior Emirati drivers in Ford Fiestas.

Amjad Farrah failed to score a single point in last year's regional campaign, but the Jordanian leads the Amman-based contingent, with Ammar Hizaji also taking part. Yazeed Al-Rajhi flies the Saudi Arabian flag on the much-vaunted Middle East debut of his new Kronos Racing Peugeot 207 S2000.

Schedule Middle East Region (MERC) 2009
22-24.01    Qatar
05-07.03    Kuwait
07-09.04    Arabia Saudita
07-09.05    Iordania
11-13.06    Siria
03-05.07    Liban
09-11.10    Cipru – Troodos
27-29.11    Dubai

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