Fast, furious and enthusiastic best describes Adham Mustafa, who followed his passion for engines and the desert years ago gearing up in cross country rally racing, pioneering in this motor sport in Egypt. After a racing track record Adham Mostafa founded the Desert Pharaohs Racing Team in 2009, which he is heading.
He began his journey with rallies in Egypt in the 1990s, and since then, he knew that this is what he wanted to do “back in the 80’s, when I was little, I used to skip class and go watch rallies. The smell of the burning tires was soothing for me, I loved it, and I loved everything about it”, Adham tells us.
It’s hard to be a rally driver for a living in Egypt, which makes it hard to combine both your passion and a full time job at the same time, but Adham Mostafa was lucky enough to have both, “well, I studied Business Administration, later I got interested in Photography, and I pursued it on a professional level. I own Xtreme Photography, and I’m a head photographer in the company”, he adds.
Before entering the world of motors and engines, Adham was Egypt’s National Diving Champion, “I used to practice board diving and at a time I was Egypt’s champion, but when I grew up my physical features didn’t match the sport as you can’t be that tall and practice diving, so I quit and focused on cross country racing, which suits me best. In Egypt, everyone who wants to practice any sport just goes for it, but there must be some prerequisites taken into consideration”, he points out.
In 2010 he revamped a Dodge Ram truck and basically re-engineered it on his own, “I simply adore engines. I also love races, but there is an obstacle here in Egypt that prevents us from practicing a variety of races due to characteristics of our landscape. In Europe, there is a variety of races, but here it’s limited to cross country rallies or carting”, we learn. Gloria takes a big part of Adham’s life, and no she’s not his girlfriend, Gloria is his car “the name is inspired from Gloria the hippo from Madagascar due to its huge size”. Adham builds his car from scratch. From seats to engines, the car comes to a modification to make sure that it falls under the highest category of safety, “Every part of the car undergoes a modification phase to make sure it’s safer, faster, more durable and stronger. Unfortunately, there are many car manufacturers in Egypt who don’t realize the potential behind it”.
Like many sports in Egypt, rally racing isn’t fortunate enough to receive the deserved media and government attention, “it’s the media’s role to give more attention to rally sports in Egypt, to encourage sponsors to give a closer look to rallies for we need a huge financial back up to come to light, the costs and finances would make you laugh. People here prefer to sponsor music or football, but they really must take a look at rallies”, he explains.
With all the challenge and action, Adham thinks that he has the best job in the world “You do something very different. It’s very challenging and very creative. Its creativity stems from all the obstacles we come to face in the engine, so we’re always in hunt for solutions. It’s very rewarding when you build something and watch it ready for action. We also work as a team, it’s not individual as many people might think, and we’re family”, Adham adds.
With unlimited safety measures, Adham doesn’t see any ‘risk’ in his job description, “it’s not a job of high risk, I’m serious, and driving in the streets of Cairo is much riskier, seriously. There are lots of safety measures in our cars so I never get to worry”.
Adham is very optimistic when it comes to marking his team on the international map of rallies, “If we found the right sponsor and backup, I’m sure we will be on the highest levels. I hope that the sponsors would be 100% Egyptian”, he comments.
Desert Pharaohs Rally, will take place in 6 stages covering 2750 kilometers starting from Cairo-Al Ramak and ending with Siwa – El Alamein. The rally will take place from 2nd to 10th of October 2010, under the auspices of The Ministry of Tourism. Let’s all join to support a sport and reward the tremendous efforts that are exerted by all the racing teams.
