Yazeed Al-Rajhi has won the Jeddah Baja Toyota Rally for the seventh time, a record. With his German navigator Dennis Zenz in the Overdrive Toyota Hilux, he overturned a deficit of more than a minute on the final day and eventually won by 6min 43.8sec. The result also puts him in the lead of the Saudi Toyota Rally Championship after the second round.
Al-Attiyah leads after day one
After Thursday’s prologue and Friday’s opening desert stage, Nasser Saleh Al-Attiyah was still in the lead. With his French navigator Max Delfino in the rear-wheel drive Optimus MD, he held a 1min 07.8sec advantage over Al-Rajhi. The latter lost most of his time in the first kilometres of the stage. “Today was not easy,” he said on Friday. “After the start we lost some time, the route was not clear. The first five kilometres the navigation was difficult and it was hard to find the right road. In the second part we gained some time back.”
Navigation decisive on final day
Saturday featured one more stage of almost 84 kilometres. Short, but once again with tricky navigation. While several crews lost their way, Al-Rajhi and Zenz stayed on course and turned the event around completely. “I am very happy with this victory,” said Al-Rajhi. “Dennis did a great job today. It was not easy navigation, but we worked well together. My team did a great job as always and we enjoyed it a lot. Many people lost their way today, but we managed it.”
Al-Saif wins Challenger class
Saleh Al-Saif and Albert Veliamovič completed the podium in their G Rally Team OT3. They had already strengthened their hold on third place after the first day and on Saturday they again kept class rivals Dania Akeel and Sébastien Delaunay (Taurus T3 Max) behind them. For Al-Saif it was his fourth Challenger class victory in five years.
In the SSV class, a fine duel developed between Maha Al-Hamali and Hamad Al-Harbi, both in a Can-Am Maverick R. Al-Hamali and navigator Alexsei Kuzmich were fastest on Saturday and won the class, finishing fifth overall. Al-Harbi and Faisal Al-Suwayh finished sixth. Both crews passed Khalaf Joan Al-Shammeri and Mashal Saleh Al-Shammeri on the final stage, dropping the Nissan Patrol pair to seventh. In the Stock class for production vehicles, Abdulaziz Al-Yaeesh and Omar Al-Lahim took victory in their Isuzu D-Max. They missed the prologue but finished eleventh.
Al-Balooshi and Al-Tuwaijri win bike and quad categories
In the motorcycle category, Mohammed Al-Balooshi was the fastest rider all weekend. On the final day he left the fastest time to his brother Sultan, but secured victory with a margin of 6min 10.0sec. Ibrahim Al-Jaralla passed Dominic Wells on the last stage to finish third, despite a 15-minute time penalty after the prologue.
In the quad category, Haitham Al-Tuwaijri won on his Yamaha by almost seventeen minutes over Abdulrahman Alabdullatif, who won the final stage. It was Al-Tuwaijri’s fourth victory in five years in Jeddah.
The Saudi championship concludes with the Qassim Baja from 1 to 4 December.
