The four-wheel drive cars and motorcycles race on the dunes is considered a popular sport in the Gulf especially for all of the local Emirati citizens and foreign tourists alike. The race is certainly not for people that have weakhearts where the incidents are a common thing in this kind of races which require not only speed and strength but also steel and strong nerves. The best event that describes this kind of sports is the International Liwafestival which ended where there was participationfrom hundred people and they were trying to ascend the highest hill of sand in the United Arab Emirates. “Almoreeb Hill” is a hard hill where it consists of 30 meters long and it gained its name thanks to a strong decline of 50 degrees so it needs a professional to win this amazing challenge.
The festival is funded by the UAE government in order to celebrate the landscape of desert and the Bedouin culture. Ahmed Almshgony who is one of the contestants in the “Sandtoiz” team explained his strong feeling to go beyond the fear where he said: “For me, this is a normal thing because I’m aBedouin man and this hill does not scare me at all”. This annual event includes the classic cars race as well as the practice of traditional sports such as camel and horses races but this time, the race was on the sand dunes and this has attracted the most attention with viewers and participants from across the region. On the other hand, Jassim Al-Ali from the “Victory” team has learned how to design his car by following some video tapes on the internet where he was able to increase the power of his car’s engine from 200 to 1100 horsepower. He did all of this by himself and this is an evidence on the powerful minds of the UAE’s citizens where they have a lot of potentials and capabilities in this field.
Thisdunes’ race is not a cheap hobby where it requires a lot of modifications in the cars plus the special parts required to handle this challenge as well as the need to import the fuel from the United States. In this context, the value of the car’s modificationsfor one of the contestants who is Salem Aldahmanihas reached 100,000 USD which is ten times more than the modest award set by the race committee. However, this hoppy is about the passion and not money which is the primary motivation for competitors in this challenge.
