| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Nationality | UAE |
| Born | 1961 |
| World Rally Championship record | |
| Active years | 1988, 1990, 1991 – 1995 |
| Teams | Ford, Toyota |
| Championships | 14 |
| Rally wins | 61 |
| First rally | 1984 Acropolis Rally |
| First win | – |
| Last rally | 2003 |
Mohammed Ahmed bin Sulayem or Mohammed ben Sulayem (born 1961) is a UAE champion rally driver who lives in Dubai and is one the Arab world's most famous sportsmen.
He has won more FIA regional championships, and more international rallies, than any other racer in history. His premier event has been the FIA Middle East Rally Championship. Since first winning in 1986, he has gone on to win the event a record, 14 times, never having been defeated and making him the most successful FIA title holder in the world.
This successful career includes 61 international outings in the European, African, Middle East and World Rally Championships (WRC). During his career he drove for Opel, Toyota and Ford. Though he has not raced competitively since the 2003 season, Sulayem has yet to officially announce his retirement from rally sport. While his official name is Mohammed bin Sulayem he is commonly referred to as "Mohammed ben Sulayem".
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Sulayem is an alumnus of the American University, located in Washington D.C., where he majored in political science.
Mohammed Ben Sulayem is the President of the Automobile and Touring Club of the United Arab Emirates (ATCUAE), FIA Vice-President for Sport, and Chairman of the Institute for Sport Research UAE.
Sulayem has been appointed by the FIA and FIM as the official representative to oversee all motorsports events in the UAE. He is also Chairman of the Organising Committee for the ppAbu Dhabi Desert Challenge ``, formerly the UAE Desert Challenge, a rally raid race that he founded in 1991. The event has since become the first round of the FIA Cross-Country Rally World Cup.
He is a founding member of the Arab Council of Touring and Automobile Clubs, which aims to unite the FIA Clubs of Arabic-speaking territories.
In 2008 he was appointed Vice President of the FIA and a member of the World Motor Sport Council. The FIA is the global sporting authority for motorsport and represents 100 million car owners in almost 200 countries.
Apart from motor sport, Mr. Ben Sulayem is actively involved with social causes lending his name to fund-raising events and endorsing brands where the proceeds are forwarded to pre-selected foundations and institutes. Despite his passion for motor sport, Mr. Ben Sulayem is very conscious of the dangers of speeding and has been in the forefront championing the cause of road safety not just in the region but worldwide.
Ben Sulayem is a keen advocate of education and the creation of knowledge in sport. In 2010 in conjunction with the University of Ulster he established the Institute of Sports Research which allows people working in motorsport and other sports to pursue post graduate degrees by research. Currently the Institute has a number of candidates for both Masters and PhD degrees mainly in the broad of motorsport management. He is also co-editor of Sports Management in the Middle East the first academic book to be published on the subject where Ben Sulayem also wrote the chapter on Governance and Ethics in sport.
In recognition of his contribution to the sport and for serving as a role model for Arab youth, Mr Ben Sulayem was declared the UAE’s Sportsman of the Century by the respected international news agency, Agence France-Presse in 1991.
As the owner of Ben Sulayem Performance, he and his team have been noted for creating super-high performance modifications to a variety of sports and luxury cars. In 2005, he received press in motorsports' circles for having a Mercedes SLK 55 AMG modified to accept a Modified SLR engine, providing the car with over 740 hp and 1200 Nm (885 ft·lb) of torque. The modified SLK has a higher top speed (350 km/h estimated) than the production SLR due to differences in weight and was noted for a video depicting it out-performing an unmodified Enzo Ferrari.
On April 9, 2009 while demonstrating a Renault R28 F1 car – in a drag race against 2008 GP2 Asia Series champion Romain Grosjean, who was driving a Ford GT – at an exhibition at the Dubai Autodrome, Sulayem lost control of the vehicle under acceleration and crashed into the pit wall, causing extensive damage to the car. He was uninjured in the incident.[1] He is featured in Dirt 2 and a cameo appearance in Dirt 3.