Just before Pyramids Rally 2008, Abouyoussef partnered with Toyota Egypt for a long term sponsorship. The common goals include promoting Rally Sport in Egypt, improving results in the International rallies held in Egypt and representing Egypt abroad in the major international rallies of the world. Details of the partnership were announced in a press conference on June 22nd, 2008.

The attached file holds the application forms for Egyptians for the Pharaons 2008. If interested, pls fill them and send them back to me. Pls note that there is an early booker discount for payment before mid July.

We are proud to announce that our team was able to win the rally des Pyramides 2008 for the third time in a row. This was a precious victory and really a happy event following our troubles in Libya. You can check some photos here, here and here. A very nice video will be posted by the end of the month. We also posted the complete results here.

The Rally des Pyramides 2008 will be held from the 30th of April to the 8th of May.

Our team will be returning to compete again this year hoping to achieve a good standing specially that we were able to clinch first position overall last year after a fierce competition that lasted the entire length of the race. We will try to update the site as we go along.

Check out pictures of the final rally school training trip here.

You can read this coverage of the Rally School in the Daily News here.

Well we came back from Libya safe and mostly sound. We went, we saw but we definitely did not conquer. This was the Libya Desert Challenge but for us it was the Libya Challenge as we saw little desert. It started well like all things that go terribly wrong. We crossed the border with very little hassle, and drove around 2500 km in 3 days to the proximity of rally base camp. The rally itself was satisfying especially concerning tracks, organization, and technical difficulties. The Libyans we met in the rally were very welcoming and will hopefully come to our Egyptian rallies in the near future. Our team's brief performance was excellent and from the first kms we were well ahead of the pack ensuring us first position overall. But the challenge lay not in the desert portion of this adventure. Our troubles started when our assistance car had a head-on collision with another speeding car coming in the wrong direction on an asphalt liaison. The injured assistants were rushed to the best hospital we could find (which does not say much) and all tests, x-rays and CT scans were made. Thank God there was no danger to their lives but there were a lot of stitches and healing needed. We went back to the hospital to check on our team only to find out that the other car in the accident did not want to drop the lawsuit, even though they were at fault as confirmed by the police report. We then decided to abandon the race for one day, or so we thought, until we made sure the lawsuit was dropped which took a lot of pleading, threatening, pulling strings and only 4 days! By the fifth day, our team was smuggled back to Cairo where a more thorough checkup confirmed their physical well being, the broken cars were loaded on trucks and we were ready to head home. We got back to the camp, packed our things and drove back from close to the Algerian border non stop for 2700 km until we hit Cairo. At the end, Master William tells us that All’s Well that Ends Well. We are all home and that is all that matters. As far as Libya is concerned, the dunes there are very different. I am not talking about their twisted sense of humor but technically speaking, they are very complex and very high but not as soft as our sand sea. A return visit is a must but a recovery time is needed first. In the mean time, I will be looking for some good karma to offer these Libyan sands in order for them to accept us less painfully next time.
The Sand Sea Sailors Team

We leave to Libya tomorrow to represent Egypt in our first race abroad, The Libya Desert Challenge. Will try to keep you updated as much as possible. Whatever you do, pls don't wish us luck as it is bad luck to do so :) !!!

After the Dakar in West Africa, the Pharaohs rally in Egypt and the rally of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates it was just a matter of time before Libya, the most awe inspiring Saharan country, gave the green light 2 years ago and opened its doors welcoming the International rally community. With dunes as high as sky scrapers, endless dune seas with peaks up to 200m high, spectacular canyons, surreal rock formations, volcanoes, and hidden paradise lakes it combines to make the scenery beyond any doubt the most beautiful and most breath-taking rally experience of the Sahara. From the 5th-11th of March 2008 more than 100 motor bikers, quad riders and car pilots will be competing with each other in the south of Libya for the third time for the title of fastest pilot (rally) or best navigator (raid) of the Sahara.

Sand sea Sailors is currently preparing to enter the Libya Desert Challenge, thus becoming the first Egyptian team to ever do so... Will keep you updated on the details as we go along.