Although born in Karachi, Pakistan, Nur and his family currently make their home base in Texas.  As a result, the Mexico City race saw scores of family, friends and fans from the Desi community taking the opportunity to fly to watch the first ever Pakistani-born race car driver represent their country in an international motorsport event.

As race day drew to a close, supporters gathered at a dinner organized by a sponsor to honour Nur Ali and his achievements.  As glasses were raised around the table, one by one those present rose to speak.  Overwhelmed by emotion, many of those present expressed their pride in Nur’s trailblazing spirit for Pakistan, as well as the hard work and dedication shown by both Nur and his family for Pakistan and the Muslim community worldwide. 

During early qualifying, Nur Ali showed good progress, setting his fastest time of the weekend.

Race day dawned a bit cooler and slightly overcast as the cars took their positions for the Sprint Race.  The first lap saw carnage, with the A1GP Mexico car spearing the A1GP Brazil car, leaving a trail of debris on the track.  Nur Ali was able to avoid both the initial accident and the residual debris, qualifying in 15th position.

The fans were duly impressed by A1GP’s colourful grid ceremony, in which the cars are each displayed painted in the livery of their home country’s flag.  The opening ceremony consisted of dancers in traditional Mayan costumes with feathered headdresses.

Following the pageantry of the opening ceremony, Nur Ali lined up with the field of A1GP cars for the first time ever with a group of fans from home to root him on.  Under the difficult racing conditions in Mexico City, Nur and Team Pakistan managed to steer clear of any incidents, but wound up dropping positions to finish 21st.

Responding to questions, Nur Ali said, “This was a physically demanding event, and also a bit frustrating. We had a decent Sprint race, moving up to P15, which gave us a better starting position for the second race.  The first corner here is quite narrow after a wide straight and had caused some incidents during the Sprint race.  So ahead of the Feature race, the team told me to be cautious and aim for the finish instead of any first lap heroics.”

“Towards the end of the Feature race I had the race leaders behind me, and obviously as a courteous driver I didn’t want to affect their racing.  Unfortunately, when you move off-line here the track is very dirty, and I collected quite a lot of debris on the tyres which affected the handling of the car.”

A1 Team Pakistan will make its second visit to China this season, for the A1GP Shanghai, China on 15 April, 2007.  Nur Ali and Ali Motorsports hope you will watch for us there!