Yazeed Al-Rajhi and Timo Gottschalk cruised to an emphatic victory in the Tabuk Toyota Rally and the Saudi extended his lead in the 2024 Saudi Toyota Championship on Saturday.
The Overdrive Racing Toyota Hilux suffered no issues on the final 168km selective section through the nearby desert to the southwest of Tabuk and the stage win gave the crew a winning margin of 16min 37sec.
“It was good for us,” said Al-Rajhi. “It was not easy, very tricky actually. We have good stages in Saudi now. Before it was flat, flat and now it is more technical with good navigation and you need to focus all the time. Now we look ahead to Baja Greece.”
Dania Akeel and Stéphane Duplé continued to flourish in the Ultimate category with the second of the Toyota Hiluxes and finished second overall, despite getting lost on the stage for several minutes.
Akeel said: “We had a good day except we lost around four minutes in navigation, That is part of the game. Other than that, we had a good day. The stage was narrow and quite twisty and that was good for me to get used to the car. I would love to race this car every day. We will see. I want to develop as a driver as much as I can.”
Saleh Al-Saif and Qatari co-driver Nasser Al-Kuwari rounded off the podium places and topped the Challenger standings in their Dark Horse OT3.
Moaaz Hariri and co-driver Kirill Shubin wrapped up an excellent outing in Tabuk with fourth overall and victory in the SSV category in their Can-Am Maverick XRS Turbo RR.
Abdulaziz Al-Yaeesh topped the times in the Ultimate class and finished fifth overall, while Hamad Al-Harbi was Al-Saif’s closest rival in the Challenger section in sixth place in his Can-Am after passing Maha Al-Hameli on the final morning.
Owaid Al-Shammeri and Waleed Al-Dhakeel were eighth and ninth but Al-Harbi later incurred a 10-minute penalty for not following neutralisation zone rules and it dropped the Saudi to eighth overall behind Al-Hameli and Al-Shammeri, who climbed to sixth and seventh positions.
Jafar Al-Qahtani delivered an excellent drive to finish 10th and top the Stock category for series-production cross-country vehicles in his Nissan.
MX Ride Dubai’s Mohammed Al-Balooshi continued his superb run of form on Middle East regional events with the fastest time on the final stage that confirmed another victory for the Emirati on his Husqvarna.
He opened the road, pushed hard and beat local KTM rider Abdulhalim Al-Mogheera by nearly 15 minutes on the final stage to snatch the win by 27min 45sec, his cause helped still further when the Saudi incurred a time penalty.
Al-Balooshi said: “Really happy, so pumped with this win. I know the task was to open and full attack. The task was difficult and not impossible. I really put my head down, stayed focused and I needed more than two minutes. I got a lot more that that. I am really happy to defend this title in Tabuk. I really like all the races in Saudi Arabia. Abdulhalim (Mogheera) really kept me on my toes. He is progressing well.”
Ahmed Al-Jaber (KTM) clocked the second fastest time on two wheels to come home in fourth behind Hamdan Al-Ali (Honda). Kuwait’s Abdullah Al-Shatti lost time on the final stage and slipped to fifth but finished ahead of over-450cc category winner Philip Horlemann and local rider Mishal Al-Ghuneim. South Africa’s Hanno Geyser, Kuwait-based Jason Joslin and Lebanon’s Eid Rafic rounded off the top 10.
There was a nail-biting finish to the battle in the quads with Haitham Al-Tuwaijri managing to snatch the victory on his Yamaha Raptor from rivals Hani Al-Noumesi and Abdulaziz Al-Shayban. The Saudi’s winning margin was just 25 seconds.
The Saudi Toyota Championship continues with the Qassim Rally on October 23rd-26th.
