BURAYDAH, SAUDI ARABIA – The Saudi Automobile and Motorcycle Federation (SAMF), with the Ministry of Sport and Abdul Latif Jameel Motors Toyota, is finalising Rally Qassim 2023, round three of the Saudi Toyota Championship on November 23–25.
Based at the Mövenpick Qassim in Buraydah and run by the SAMF under HRH Prince Khalid bin Sultan Al-Abdullah Al-Faisal, the rally starts on Thursday, November 23 with a ceremonial start in the nearby National Park (13:45) and a four-kilometre Prologue (15:20). Two desert selective sections follow – 187km on Friday and 121km on Saturday – before prize-giving in the National Park from 19:30.
The 2023 championship has four rounds: the Saudi Baja and Tabuk-NEOM rallies in February and May, Qassim, and the Jeddah Rally on December 14–16.
Rally Qassim has 79 entries – 42 cars, 30 motorcycles and seven quads. The cars comprise 18 T1s, one T1+, 12 production T2s, six lightweight prototype T3s, four T4s and one T5 truck.
The first Rally Qassim in 2019 was won by Yazeed Al-Rajhi (cars), Khalil Al-Tuwaijri (NUTV), Mohammed Al-Balooshi (bikes), Abdulmajeed Al-Khulaifi (quads) and Ibrahim Al-Muhanna (trucks). After no events in 2020 and 2021, it returned in 2022, when Al-Rajhi retained his car title, Abdullah Al-Sanad, Hamad Al-Harbi and Saeed Al-Mouri won T2, T3 and T4, Mishal Al-Ghuneim won the bikes and Al-Khulaifi took a second quad win.