Young Emirati racing driver Haytham Sultan Al Ali promotes safe driving campaign through motorsport

UAE: Dubai June 19^th 2011: Young Emirati racing driver Haytham Sultan Al Ali was on duty to talk about the serious dangers of speeding over a three day “Keep a Safe Distance” campaign held at Mirdif City Centre, Dubai.

The safe driving campaign was held in conjunction with Dubai Police and Al Jazera University, where Haytham and his fellow students gave out thousands of leaflets and advice to the public with a fun competition questionnaire for young visitors.

Haytham took the opportunity to present his Formula style racing car that he intends to race in the upcoming Formula Gulf 1000 Championship starting in UAE in October this year. Young visitors took the opportunity to sit with Haytham while he gave away over 1000 autographed cards with his message of Safe Driving.

“I am here as a young race driver to help advise people who like speeding to come to the racing tracks such as Dubai Autodrome or Yas Marina circuits where they can drive fast cars and karts, there are many types of racing to be enjoyed from Drag Racing, Karting and Circuit racing with some of the fastest cars on hire” Haytham said.

By day Haytham works as a UAE Immigration Officer alongside this he is studying for a Bachelor degree and also maintains a busy schedule of fitness and training for his aspirations in motorsports, he wishes to encourage more young people to visit the race tracks in UAE to develop their talents in motorsports.

“These race tracks are highly organised and have all the right safety equipment, which is why they should be the place to race, not on our roads,” he added. “When I was younger I also wanted to drive really fast, I realised quickly that it was not possible to do so on the public roads and so I started racing on the track, this was so much fun and I could go a lot faster, but at the same time I was not putting anyone else in danger by my actions”.

Leading this campaign is Dubai Police Maj Gen Mohammad Saif Al Zafein head of Dubai Police’s Traffic Department, who commented.

“Failing to keep a safe distance is often combined with speeding and bad driving habits in general, so it is hard to tell exactly how many accidents are caused by drivers’ failure to keep a safe distance, but combating this habit goes hand in hand with curbing speeding”.

“Fast driving in our sport is one of the key factors to success as well as good spatial awareness and we must follow even stricter rules for racing than on the roads, the true test for speed hungry drivers would be to come to the track and learn to drive faster and safer, that is where the real thrill is, and the best way to save your licence and car from the impound, we are developing this specialist race training aimed at the young drivers, commented a female racing driver Lex Akehurst of XSport Motorsport Management.

Failing to keep a safe distance between vehicles caused two deaths and 140 collisions in the first quarter of this year, Dubai police said. It also caused 16 deaths in 448 accidents in 2010. Failing to comply with the safe distance rule will result in a fine of Dh400 and four black points.

The Formula Gulf Championship is the first racing series dedicated to Formula1 single-seater style cars and Haytham has aspirations to start racing here in UAE and then progress quickly to International competition.

“For me the important thing right now is to get out and about to raise awareness of motorsport to others and also to help raise funding so that I can represent UAE abroad in Formula racing. At the moment there is only awareness of Formula 1, but it will take me many years of training for this level and with the right support the UAE can achieve this, I also aim to help educate children about road safety and motorsport.

Haytham would like to extend his thanks in supporting this campaign to Dubai Police Traffic Dept, Al Jazera University, Layan Gallery, Mirdif City Centre mall, GulfSport/Formula Gulf 1000 and XSPORT Motorsport.

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