This week I attended the ATC UAE’s annual press conference, which announces the launch of the new motorsport season. It was all jolly exciting.
While there, I bumped into former colleagues and other such counterparts from across the UAE motorsport industry. Everyone seemed reasonably excited about giving up their weekends for the next eight months.
However, after having spoken to different people from different series and administrations, I began to notice a pattern. They all said that they worked as hard to get into the press as they did actually running their businesses.
And it’s true; I remember it from my days as a circuit manager. It is hard to get the UAE’s various racing series consistently high media coverage.
At the launch event the room was packed full of journalists, but I’ve only found one or two articles about it online so far, and barely anything in print.
Why is that?
The issue certainly doesn’t have anything to do with facilities. The UAE boasts an infrastructure which is the envy of even the wealthiest European nation, and it’s not a question of poor governance either. The ATC are the FIA appointed sporting authority and have brought law and order to motorsport across most of the Middle East.
And, while they may be primarily focused on their own businesses, the circuits, teams and motorsport providers try relentlessly to bring awareness to the masses.
Is it, perhaps, a question of numbers? I’ll confess I don’t have the exact figures in front of me, but last year the ATC issued hundreds of competition licenses. In karting alone there were about 150, and circuit racing cars were close to 100. Rallying and bikes fared well, too.
So the UAE has a competent sporting authority heading the project, several well-run and sanctioned series, two world class race circuits, four world class kart circuits, vast expanses of desert for world class rallies, several high-profile motorsport service providers – teams, coaches etc – and a healthy number of competitors across its core categories. In karting, the UAE are even world champions.
What’s missing? Why isn’t this enough for us media luvvies?
Well, I fear that the answer is that the UAE lacks a hero. It’s something that His Excellency Dr. Mohammad Bin Sulayam touched on at the launch. There is a notable lack of Emirati racing heroes. That’s not to say there are none: Shaikh Khalid Al Qassimi, Khaled Al Qubaisi, Mohammad Al Mutawaa, Saeed Bintouq, and eight-year-old Rashid Al Daheri you will have read about from time to time.
Domestic sport across the board is difficult to publicise to the same level as the Premier League, Formula 1, and the IPL.
But it’s the economics of scale that is holding motorsport back. In order to gain the public’s interest, the hero needs to stand out from a crowd of hundreds, rather than just a few. It is he – or she in Hamda and Amna Al Qubaisi’s case – who can rise above the rest that will stand out the most. It is a clear achievement to beat two hundred other competitors, rather than just a handful.
Look at the Arabian Gulf League’s Omar Abdulrahman. He is a hero of the UAE’s national football side and one of the AGL’s best Emirati players. He has stood out because he has risen above hundreds of others. Further examples include Ireland’s Katie Taylor, a female boxer who won gold at the London Olympics. And look at Fernando Alonso. Before his rise to stardom the Spanish Grand Prix was barely noticed in Spain. Now it’s easier to get into the Royal Box at Wimbledon.
Make no mistake, domestic motorsport is more than capable of providing the UAE with a hero, and that will give the industry the exposure it deserves. But to get there, it needs to get more people involved… a task made all the harder when you can’t squeeze into the papers in the first place.
This new Emirates School Karting Championship will hopefully help things move along.
Patience though, the sport is growing and moving in the right direction. And hey, look, it’s got a whole blog about it today.
