The Hail Cross-Country Rally has drawn a bumper entry of national and international competitors to close the 2021 FIA World Cup for Cross-Country Rallies. The last off-road event of the FIA year runs in north-central Saudi Arabia on December 6th-11th.
Organised by the Saudi Automobile and Motorcycle Federation (SAMF), it has 28 entries in the international FIA category, four extra 2022-spec cars, 27 vehicles in the national section, 29 motorcycles and quads and three trucks, with many using next week’s four desert stages as a shakedown for January’s Dakar Rally.
Title decider
The tough stages through the nearby Al-Nafud desert will settle the FIA World Cup Drivers’ Championship. Qatar’s Nasser Saleh Al-Attiyah, champion in 2008 and 2015-2017, is the clear favourite for a fifth title and only needs to finish in the points.
Toyota team-mate Lucio Alvarez must win outright in Saudi Arabia to have any chance of taking the title from the Qatari.
The entry includes three works Toyotas, four X-raid Minis, a Ford F-150 for Czech Miroslav Zapletal and a BMW X5 for former champion Vladimir Vasilyev.
But Can-Ams in the increasingly popular T3 and T4 classes dominate the FIA field. South Racing and South Racing Middle East run 10 of the 28 cars, including Mavericks for Australia’s Molly Taylor and Saudi Arabia’s Saleh Al-Saif and Dania Akeel.
Four cars run in a separate 2022-spec category: Martin Prokop drives the latest Ford, Ronan Chabot and Juan Cruz Yacopini have two Toyota Hilux T1+ cars, and Sebastien Eriksson drives the latest T3 Can-Am.
National, bikes, quads and trucks
Saudi and Emirati drivers dominate the National category, and the bike and quad classes are made up entirely of GCC riders, with Abdulmajeed Al-Khulaifi and Sultan Al-Masoud hoping to shine at home.
Three trucks run at the back of the field: local driver Ibrahim Al-Muhanna (Mercedes), Japanese veteran Teruhito Sugawara (Hino) and Frenchman Teo Calvet (Tatra).
The rally covers four desert selective sections, about 969 competitive kilometres in a 1,753km route. Scrutineering and technical checks are at rally headquarters in Hail on December 6th and 7th, before the ceremonial start at Maghwat from 18.00hrs on December 7th. Four desert stages follow from December 8th-11th.