31/01/2007
NEWS STORY
The A1GP World Cup of Motorsport event taking place in Sydney, Australia this weekend was the perfect opportunity for the local Lebanese population to be given a special thank you by A1 Team Lebanon for their support. The team hosted a go-karting event held last night at the Eastern Creek Karting Centre, adjacent to the Raceway, venue for the A1GP event, with over 150 fans joining A1 Team Lebanon for the racing.
A1 Team Lebanon has the passionate support of its nation, the Arab world and the Lebanese all around the globe. The A1GP World Cup of Motorsport visits twelve international cities, and although Beirut is not on the list, there are always Lebanese supporters at the A1GP events. The Australian round proved to be a big draw for the local Lebanese population last season with the nation's flag dominating in the grandstands.
A1 Team Lebanon drivers, Khalil Beschir and Alex Khateeb (right), and their crew of mechanics, engineers and team manager all raced for the A1 Team Lebanon Karting Challenge Trophy with a large group of Lebanese A1GP race fans. The endurance race was a hotly contested battle between 17 teams and after two hours of close racing, the team of Chris Zaarour, Joe Sleiman, Peter Nasser, and Louie Abou- Hamad beat the rest of the field to finish first. A commemorative trophy, medals for each team member, A1 Team Lebanon caps, and grandstand tickets for this weekend's race were the spoils of victory for the team.
Beschir said after the event, "The Lebanese in Sydney gave us fantastic support at the Eastern Creek race last season. We reckoned there were more Lebanese flags than Australian ones in the crowd for that event! Since that time we're always receiving fan mail and invitations to meet with them, so we decided that we would host an event which would give them all a chance to have some fun with us before the serious business of A1GP racing."
Khateeb added, "It was great to be able to give our fans some time meeting with the team and we all had a great evening of racing. The camaraderie was good and we all enjoyed this opportunity to get to know each other a little more. It's always difficult at the race track to get to see everybody, so this was a good way to make sure we repay their support for us. There's quite a few coachloads of fans coming to the race, so we're expecting that our national flags will be seen all around the track this weekend."
Over 300,000 Lebanese live in Australia, with strong communities around Sydney, including the Parramatta area, close to the Eastern Creek Raceway. The New South Wales track attracted over 50,000 race fans for its first A1GP weekend 15 months ago and it was declared a great success.