Tribune news network
TABUK (SAUDI ARABIA)
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 23-26.
2024 Tabuk Toyota Rally
Positions after SS2: Cars (top 15 only) 1. Yazeed Al-Rajhi (SAU)/Timo Gottschalk (DEU) Toyota Hilux 3hr 30min 39sec 2. Dania Akeel (SAU)/Stéphane Duplé (FRA) Toyota Hilux 3hr 47min 16sec 3. Saleh Al-Saif (SAU)/Nasser Al-Kuwari (QAT) OT3 3hr 51min 23sec 4. Moaaz Hariri (SAU)/Kirill Shubin (FIA) Can-Am Maverick XRS Turbo 4hr 24min 35sec 5. Abdulaziz Al-Yaeesh (SAU)/Omar Al-Lahim (SAU) Nissan Patrol 4hr 27min 25sec 6. Maha Al-Hameli (SAU)/Oriol Vidal (ESP) Can-Am Maverick X3 4hr 32min 24sec 7. Owaid Al-Shammeri (SAU)/Ayidh Al-Harbi (SAU) Toyota Hilux 4hr 40min 17sec 8. Hamad Al-Harbi (SAU)/Aleksei Kuzmich (ARE) Can-Am Maverick X3 4hr 40min 35sec 9. Waleed Al-Dhakeel (SAU)/Egor Okhotnikov (FIA) Can-Am Maverick XRS Turbo 4hr 44min 30sec 10. Jafar Al-Qahtani (SAU)/Hussan Al-Zahrani (SAU) Nissan Patrol 4hr 46min 37sec 11. Motair Al-Shammeri (SAU)/Eisa Al-Shammeri (SAU) Nissan Patrol 4hr 56min 25sec 12. Annett Quandt (DEU)/Annie Seel (SWE) Can-Am Maverick X3 4hr 57min 34sec 13. Esraa Al-Dkheil (SAU)/Aleksandr Alekseev (KGZ) Can-Am Maverick XRS Turbo 5hr 06min 25sec 14. Muneef Al-Shammeri (SAU)/Fahad Al-Omar (SAU) Nissan Patrol 5hr 13min 24sec 15. Hamza Bakhashab (SAU)/Marcin Ludwik (POL) Can-Am Maverick X3 5hr 30min 07sec.
Bikes (top 10) 1. Mohammed Al-Balooshi (ARE) Husqvarna Rally Bike 5hr 53min 44sec 2. Abdulhalim Al-Mogheera (SAU) KTM 450 6hr 21min 29sec 3. Hamdan Al-Ali (SAU) Honda CRF 450 RX 6hr 24min 39sec 4. Ahmed Al-Jaber (SAU) KTM 450 6hr 41min 13sec 5. Abdullah Al-Shatti (KWT) Husqvarna Rally Bike 6hr 45min 49sec 6. Philip Horlemann (ARE) Husqvarna FE501 6hr 55min 04sec 7. Mishal Al-Ghuneim (SAU) Husqvarna 450 Rally 7hr 02min 31sec 8. Hanno Geyser (ZAF) Beta 7hr 08min 42sec 9. Jason Joslin (KWT) Husqvarna 350 FE 7hr 32min 19sec 10. Eid Rafic (LEB) Husqvarna EXCF 8hr 04min 00sec Quads 1. Haitham Al-Tuwaijri (SAU) Yamaha Raptor 700 6hr 44min 29sec 2. Hani Al-Noumesi (SAU) Yamaha Raptor 700 6hr 44min 54sec 3. Abdulaziz Al-Shayban (SAU) Yamaha Raptor 700 6hr 45min 58sec 4. Abdulaziz Al-Atawi (SAU) Yamaha Raptor 700 15hr 30min 04sec.
