HAIL, SAUDI ARABIA – Yazeed Al-Rajhi, Abdullah Abu Aisheh and Haitham Al-Tuwaijri set the fastest car, motorcycle and quad times on the opening 6.25km Prologue of the Hail Toyota International Rally 2024 (Saudi Baja) on Thursday afternoon.
Thirty-four FIA vehicles, 18 motorcycles, five quads and 22 Saudi National Baja crews started the SAMF-organised event. They were flagged away from the ceremonial start at Maghwat by HRH Prince Khalid bin Sultan Al-Abdullah Al-Faisal, SAMF Chairman, HRH Prince Abdulaziz bin Saad bin Abdulaziz, Governor of the Hail Region, and HRH Prince Faisal bin Fahd bin Muqrin, Deputy Emir of the Hail Region.
Cars
Bidding to keep his national title and win the FIA World Baja Cup, Al-Rajhi and German co-driver Timo Gottschalk set 4min 28sec on the slippery test, eight seconds faster than Overdrive Racing team-mates Rokas Baciuška and Oriol Vidal. João Ferreira and Filipe Palmeiro were third in their X-Raid Mini. Dania Akeel started cautiously on her Ultimate debut in a Hilux, and Aliyyah Koloc was sixth and fastest of the FIA Middle East Baja Cup drivers.
X-Raid Yamaha pair Pal Lonyai and Annett Quandt led Challenger. Spain’s Eduardo Pons was third in class after his Taurus T3 Max had its engine replaced overnight following a shakedown failure and fire. Kuwait’s Meshari Al-Thefiri led SSV in fifth overall, ahead of Abdullah Al-Shegawi and Ahmed Al-Kuwari. Al-Mashna Al-Rameli led the Saudi National Baja by seven seconds from Majid Al-Oraifan.
Bikes and quads
Jordan’s Abu Aisheh (GasGas) was eight seconds quicker than his mentor Mohammed Al-Balooshi, with Pedro Bianchi Prata third and Lebanon’s Eid Rafic and Anass Al-Rihayani completing the top five; after the coefficient, Abu Aisheh leads by 1min 04sec. Two-time winner Al-Tuwaijri set 5min 10sec on his Yamaha Raptor 700 to beat Abdulaziz Al-Shayban by 21 seconds.
On Friday, crews head into the An-Nafud desert for a 302km stage starting at Qina, northwest of Hail.