Ahmad Al Harthy, Oman's premier international racing driver, made history on the streets of Muscat last week by wowing hundreds of local motorsport fans with a carefully prepared and controlled high-speed display at the wheel of his Porsche 911 GT3 race car.

Thanks to the vital support of the Royal Oman Police and the Oman Automobile Association, a two kilometre stretch of highway between Qantab Road and Shangri-La Road was closed-off on Wednesday, 15th December, to give the 29-year-old an opportunity to show the power and performance of his 425bhp, 180mph Porsche.

Offering the people of the Sultanate their first ever opportunity to see his car in action up-close, Ahmad delivered several demonstration runs before taking some of his key sponsors and several extremely lucky members of the public on spectacular 'taxi rides'.

The afternoon proved to be a resounding success for Ahmad and his commercial partners - Oman Air, National Bank of Oman, Nawras, Ministry of Sports Affairs, Ministry of Tourism and Brand Oman. In actual fact, it was better than he himself ever imagined.

"I'm so happy to have been able to do this for the people of Oman, it's been an amazing opportunity for me to show the public from my home city what my motor racing is all about and what a fantastic car the Porsche is", said Ahmad. "It truly was an exceptional day, I'm overwhelmed. Everything went perfectly and we were very lucky to have some outstanding support, especially from the Royal Oman Police, the Oman Automobile Association and Porsche Oman. I never thought I'd have a chance to do something like this."

He added: "It's important to me to give something back to my country, to my sponsors and to promote motorsport in Oman and the Gulf region. Thank you so very much to everyone who made the road show possible, the organisation was perfect - everyone had a great time!"