Racing in a KTM X-Bow with livery in the Palestinian kaffiyeh design, Saad Salman, the driver for Sayel Racing, is making a cultural statement with his car rather than a political one.
"We wanted to reflect our Palestinian heritage in a non-political way," says Salman, who has made his professional racing debut in the UAE GT Championship.
So far, Sayel Racing has also experienced success in this year's UAE GT championship, most recently winning the last round at Yas Marina Circuit on February 12 and hoping for more success in the next round at Dubai Autodrome on Friday.
"I am shocked at the results we are getting especially as it is our first season with this car on the track," says Salman.
"I'd done a lot of track events but never any professional racing, just karting, but I wanted to take the next step," says the 30-year-old racer who is a trained mechanical engineer and has a day job as the managing director of Sayel International Architecture.
Although he grew up in the UAE and holds a Palestinian passport, Salman has never been to the territories but says that he tries to hold on to his "roots and heritage".
"Growing up in the UAE, we cannot become citizens so we keep our nationality, it keeps us tied back to Palestine."
The team is named after Salman's grandfather, whose surname was Sayel. He was a leading figure in the Palestinian military and was assassinated in 1982 in Syria. But rather than dwell on the circumstances surrounding the death, Salman says he would prefer to remember his grandfather in a positive way through the racing team.
"People who knew him respected him [and had] good things to say about him."
Salman hopes that his team can contribute to changing people's attitudes towards the Palestine Territories.
"When people think of Palestine it tends to be very political or religious, all conflict or war-inspired but we want to put Palestinian heritage and culture in the public eye," he says.
The response to Sayel Racing in its first season on the tracks of the UAE has been largely positive, according to Salman.
"I have been quite surprised - we have more than 2,500 fans on Facebook and the majority are people we don't know - it is just likeminded people getting together," Salman says of the team's diverse fanbase.
"We even have Israeli fans on Facebook and we are very proud of that."
He says that at every race they do a tribute to the territories and post the tribute on their website, to make people aware of other aspects of Palestinian life and culture away from the political troubles. The olive tree, which is essential to the Palestinian economy, has been one such tribute.
"We also did a tribute to Sheikh Zayed as he was a big supporter of Palestine and he provided a home for many Palestinians in the UAE, like us," says Salman.
Salman's wife, Sima Farouki, the team's public relations director, agrees that Sayel Racing is not about getting political and says that they want to have fun with their racing while representing the Palestine Territories in a positive way.
"We want to represent ourselves as Palestinian by the way we present ourselves at the track as professionals," says Farouki.
She adds that her cupcakes, decorated with the team logo, have proved very popular at the UAE tracks.
"We are competitive - and we have cupcakes!" she laughs.
As well as the kaffiyeh livery on the X-Bow, the car also features Handala, a Palestinian cartoon character as the team mascot.
"Handala ... is always barefoot with his back turned - he has come to be an icon," explains Salman. "We designed 'Racing Handala' and checked the copyright - the artist has passed away and [Handala] has become a symbol for solidarity.
"The car was designed in Dubai and the concept for the car was from us - I was sketching a lot of drawings on my iPad," says Salman.
He chose the X-Bow for his race car after driving it on track days and not only did he feel comfortable driving it, but he found the car attracted a lot of attention.
"In Dubai, it gets surrounded and people take pictures with their phones - the car is a rock star," says Ziad Mikhael, a close friend of Salman and the team's official photographer.
"I help by taking photos of the events, it started off me just as a friend taking pictures but I do it all the time now, it just got bigger," says Mikhael.
On the track, Salman says he enjoys the "healthy competition" especially between himself and the Ginetta G50, raced by Joe Ghanem.
Salman stresses that it is a team effort - as well as his wife and Mikhael, he has two other friends involved with Sayel Racing - Mounir Habib handles public relations and Maezar Jackoush is the videographer. AUH Motorsports, meanwhile, a crew more familiar with working on the Radical racers in the UAE provide the mechanical work and technical support for Sayel Racing: "It has been a great learning curve for both of us - we are new to racing and they have never worked on a X-Bow before," says Salman.
Sponsorship, the lifeblood of any successful race team, have also been forthcoming with the Palestine Electric Company and Morganti, an international company that is part-owned by Palestinians, helping the team financially. Salman says the team hopes to go from strength to strength in future seasons: "We have bigger goals but they have to be sustainable - we will see how far we can go."
He has also test-driven Radicals under the tutelage of Jordan Grogor, a leading Radical driver based in the UAE, and qualified first for one race and third for another, and attained second place in both races.
Farouki says she hopes they can finally visit the Palestinian Territories and when they do so, the team would like to bring some kind of motorsport event to their homeland with the simple intention of : "We would like to set up an event that is not for charity, just a chance for people to feel normal, and to inspire people, something to show people they are not forgotten."
What are the influencer academy modules?
- Mastery of audio-visual content creation.
- Cinematography, shots and movement.
- All aspects of post-production.
- Emerging technologies and VFX with AI and CGI.
- Understanding of marketing objectives and audience engagement.
- Tourism industry knowledge.
- Professional ethics.
COMPANY%20PROFILE
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ECompany%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Eco%20Way%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarted%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20December%202023%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFounder%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Ivan%20Kroshnyi%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EBased%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Dubai%2C%20UAE%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EIndustry%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Electric%20vehicles%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestors%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Bootstrapped%20with%20undisclosed%20funding.%20Looking%20to%20raise%20funds%20from%20outside%3Cbr%3E%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Test
Director: S Sashikanth
Cast: Nayanthara, Siddharth, Meera Jasmine, R Madhavan
Star rating: 2/5
WHAT IS A BLACK HOLE?
1. Black holes are objects whose gravity is so strong not even light can escape their pull
2. They can be created when massive stars collapse under their own weight
3. Large black holes can also be formed when smaller ones collide and merge
4. The biggest black holes lurk at the centre of many galaxies, including our own
5. Astronomers believe that when the universe was very young, black holes affected how galaxies formed
TO%20CATCH%20A%20KILLER
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A MINECRAFT MOVIE
Director: Jared Hess
Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa
Rating: 3/5
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
Dates for the diary
To mark Bodytree’s 10th anniversary, the coming season will be filled with celebratory activities:
- September 21 Anyone interested in becoming a certified yoga instructor can sign up for a 250-hour course in Yoga Teacher Training with Jacquelene Sadek. It begins on September 21 and will take place over the course of six weekends.
- October 18 to 21 International yoga instructor, Yogi Nora, will be visiting Bodytree and offering classes.
- October 26 to November 4 International pilates instructor Courtney Miller will be on hand at the studio, offering classes.
- November 9 Bodytree is hosting a party to celebrate turning 10, and everyone is invited. Expect a day full of free classes on the grounds of the studio.
- December 11 Yogeswari, an advanced certified Jivamukti teacher, will be visiting the studio.
- February 2, 2018 Bodytree will host its 4th annual yoga market.
The biog
First Job: Abu Dhabi Department of Petroleum in 1974
Current role: Chairperson of Al Maskari Holding since 2008
Career high: Regularly cited on Forbes list of 100 most powerful Arab Businesswomen
Achievement: Helped establish Al Maskari Medical Centre in 1969 in Abu Dhabi’s Western Region
Future plan: Will now concentrate on her charitable work
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
The Sand Castle
Director: Matty Brown
Stars: Nadine Labaki, Ziad Bakri, Zain Al Rafeea, Riman Al Rafeea
Rating: 2.5/5
THE SPECS
Engine: 1.5-litre
Transmission: 6-speed automatic
Power: 110 horsepower
Torque: 147Nm
Price: From Dh59,700
On sale: now
Armies of Sand
By Kenneth Pollack (Oxford University Press)
How much sugar is in chocolate Easter eggs?
- The 169g Crunchie egg has 15.9g of sugar per 25g serving, working out at around 107g of sugar per egg
- The 190g Maltesers Teasers egg contains 58g of sugar per 100g for the egg and 19.6g of sugar in each of the two Teasers bars that come with it
- The 188g Smarties egg has 113g of sugar per egg and 22.8g in the tube of Smarties it contains
- The Milky Bar white chocolate Egg Hunt Pack contains eight eggs at 7.7g of sugar per egg
- The Cadbury Creme Egg contains 26g of sugar per 40g egg
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
In numbers: China in Dubai
The number of Chinese people living in Dubai: An estimated 200,000
Number of Chinese people in International City: Almost 50,000
Daily visitors to Dragon Mart in 2018/19: 120,000
Daily visitors to Dragon Mart in 2010: 20,000
Percentage increase in visitors in eight years: 500 per cent
Afghanistan fixtures
- v Australia, today
- v Sri Lanka, Tuesday
- v New Zealand, Saturday,
- v South Africa, June 15
- v England, June 18
- v India, June 22
- v Bangladesh, June 24
- v Pakistan, June 29
- v West Indies, July 4
Company%20Profile
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ECompany%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Astra%20Tech%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarted%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EMarch%202022%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EBased%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EDubai%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFounder%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EAbdallah%20Abu%20Sheikh%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EIndustry%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20technology%20investment%20and%20development%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFunding%20size%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20%24500m%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
MATCH INFO
Final: England v South Africa, Saturday, 1pm
If you go
Where to stay: Courtyard by Marriott Titusville Kennedy Space Centre has unparalleled views of the Indian River. Alligators can be spotted from hotel room balconies, as can several rocket launch sites. The hotel also boasts cool space-themed decor.
When to go: Florida is best experienced during the winter months, from November to May, before the humidity kicks in.
How to get there: Emirates currently flies from Dubai to Orlando five times a week.
COMPANY PROFILE
Initial investment: Undisclosed
Investment stage: Series A
Investors: Core42
Current number of staff: 47
The years Ramadan fell in May
Director: Jon Favreau
Starring: Donald Glover, Seth Rogen, John Oliver
Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
The Melbourne Mercer Global Pension Index
The Melbourne Mercer Global Pension Index
Mazen Abukhater, principal and actuary at global consultancy Mercer, Middle East, says the company’s Melbourne Mercer Global Pension Index - which benchmarks 34 pension schemes across the globe to assess their adequacy, sustainability and integrity - included Saudi Arabia for the first time this year to offer a glimpse into the region.
The index highlighted fundamental issues for all 34 countries, such as a rapid ageing population and a low growth / low interest environment putting pressure on expected returns. It also highlighted the increasing popularity around the world of defined contribution schemes.
“Average life expectancy has been increasing by about three years every 10 years. Someone born in 1947 is expected to live until 85 whereas someone born in 2007 is expected to live to 103,” Mr Abukhater told the Mena Pensions Conference.
“Are our systems equipped to handle these kind of life expectancies in the future? If so many people retire at 60, they are going to be in retirement for 43 years – so we need to adapt our retirement age to our changing life expectancy.”
Saudi Arabia came in the middle of Mercer’s ranking with a score of 58.9. The report said the country's index could be raised by improving the minimum level of support for the poorest aged individuals and increasing the labour force participation rate at older ages as life expectancies rise.
Mr Abukhater said the challenges of an ageing population, increased life expectancy and some individuals relying solely on their government for financial support in their retirement years will put the system under strain.
“To relieve that pressure, governments need to consider whether it is time to switch to a defined contribution scheme so that individuals can supplement their own future with the help of government support,” he said.
MATCH INFO
Everton v Tottenham, Sunday, 8.30pm (UAE)
Match is live on BeIN Sports
Credits
Produced by: Colour Yellow Productions and Eros Now
Director: Mudassar Aziz
Cast: Sonakshi Sinha, Jimmy Sheirgill, Jassi Gill, Piyush Mishra, Diana Penty, Aparshakti Khurrana
Star rating: 2.5/5
