HAIL, SAUDI ARABIA – Yazeed Al-Rajhi and Timo Gottschalk were pushed all the way on the final 164km stage of the Hail Toyota International Rally 2024 (Saudi Baja), but won by just 38 seconds in their Toyota Hilux on Saturday morning.
Portugal’s João Ferreira and Filipe Palmeiro won the stage in their X-Raid Mini John Cooper Works Rally Plus and passed Al-Rajhi’s Overdrive Racing team-mates Rokas Baciuška and Oriol Vidal for second.
Al-Rajhi is now the joint most successful competitor in the event’s history with seven wins for five different manufacturers, equalling quad rider Abdulmajeed Al-Khulaifi’s seven between 2014 and 2021. Gottschalk took his fourth win here, after successes with Nasser Saleh Al-Attiyah in 2011 and Al-Rajhi in 2015 and 2016.
I am very happy. Very enjoyable rally and my seventh win. It’s always nice to win here. I never expected that I would become a Baja or a cross-country specialist but my first win here opened my eyes to this kind of racing. I enjoy it a lot. Now I am going from the dunes to the Alps for some skiing…and then I will return to racing for the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge.
Yazeed Al-Rajhi
We are happy to open the season with a victory in Hail. That is especially important for Yazeed. We had strong competition around us. It was not easy. We made a good gap on the first day but we knew it would not be easy to open today. Sometimes we had no lines at all and there were tracks going in all directions. You really had to be awake. We could not go slow. It was a nice rally.
Timo Gottschalk
It was a very enjoyable race. I am not a specialist on dunes and in sand. The competition was very good and I gained a lot of experience from being here.
João Ferreira
Overnight suspension changes by X-Raid let Ferreira push much harder on the last stage. Argentina’s Juan Cruz Yacopini and Daniel Oliveras were second fastest on the day and fourth overall in the opening round of the FIA World and Middle East Baja Cups, hosted by the Saudi Automobile and Motorcycle Federation (SAMF).
Class winners
Saleh Al-Saif, beaten only once on this event since 2020, recovered from an early scare to win Challenger in his G Rally Team OT3 with Qatar’s Nasser Al-Kuwari, fifth overall and 11min 41sec clear of Santag Racing’s João Dias. Al-Saif topped the FIA Middle East Baja Cup and Dias the FIA World Baja Cup. Dubai-based Aliyyah Koloc and Sébastien Delaunay were seventh in their Red-Lined Revo+.
Dania Akeel set the fifth fastest final-stage time to pass former Can-Am team-mate Fernando Alvarez for eighth on her Overdrive Hilux debut. Alvarez and Xavier Panseri were ninth and won SSV in their South Racing Can-Am, ahead of Alexander Toril Boquoi and Qatar’s Ahmed Al-Kuwari. Driveshaft trouble ruined Amerigo Ventura’s chances, a fuel pump problem stopped Eduardo Pons’s Challenger bid, and Majed Al-Thunayyan scored Stock points in his Nissan Patrol.
Bikes and quads
Mohammed Al-Balooshi rode cautiously to fourth on the stage but sealed his fourth Hail win since 2020 by 2min 12sec on his KTM from Kuwaiti team-mate Abdullah Al-Shatti, in the opening round of the FIM Bajas World Cup. Stage winner Abdulhalim Al-Mogheera was third ahead of Hamdan Al-Ali.
I am very happy to win this rally for the fourth time. I have a perfect record here in Saudi. I have never lost here. Today was very tricky. It was an easy stage but so simple to make a stupid mistake. Our strategy was to bring the bike to the finish line and secure the win. With that we lead the world rankings. I am also proud that the top three are GCC riders, me from the Emirates, Abdullah from Kuwait and Abdulhalim from Saudi Arabia. I am proud to have an all-Arab podium.
Mohammed Al-Balooshi
A 15-minute route-violation penalty dropped Jordan’s Abdullah Abu Aisheh to sixth, behind Pedro Bianchi Prata, with Philip Horlemann seventh, Salman Farhan eighth and Australians Martin Chalmers and Andrew Houlihan completing the top 10.
Haitham Al-Tuwaijri cruised to his third straight Hail quad win on his Yamaha Raptor 700, 1hr 05min 15sec ahead of Hani Al-Noumesi, with Abdulaziz Al-Shayban third. Abdulaziz Al-Yaeesh (Nissan) won the Saudi National Baja, round one of the Saudi Toyota Rally Championship, ahead of stage winner Faris Al-Moshana.