The Peninsula
Saudi Baja-Hail, the opening round of the 2023 FIA World and Middle East Cups for Cross-Country Bajas, the FIM Bajas World Cup and the Saudi Toyota National Rally Championship, gets underway from the Maghwat conference facility on the outskirts of Hail this afternoon.
A three-day route through the deserts surrounding the north-central city features a varied and challenging course, consisting of 85% open desert, 10% gravel and dirt tracks and 5% sand dunes in the An Nafud.
The approved final 34-car FIA entry list features six modified T1 cars, seven T2 series-production cross-country machines, 10 T3 lightweight prototypes and 11 T4 entrants. There is also a National Baja running behind the main event for mainly local crews.
The major news on Tuesday was the unfortunate withdrawal of local favourite and defending champion Yazeed Al Rajhi. The Saudi sustained a minor chest injury after an accident on a recent skiing vacation at Courchevel in France and has been suffering from pain on the right side of his chest. On Tuesday evening, the Riyadh driver confirmed that he had sustained a hairline fracture in his right fifth rib and incurred minor cartilage damage in the fall.
He said: “Despite wanting to take part in the Baja in Hail, I felt severe chest pain this morning (Tuesday), so I had to go back to my doctor and have more tests done. Initially, I was not diagnosed with broken ribs but I was diagnosed with edema (swelling caused by fluid trapped in body tissue), which caused the continuous pain. The doctors advised me not to take part in the rally until I get better.”
Al Rajhi was a winner of the Hail International Rally on two occasions (2009 and 2010) with Nasser Saleh Al Attiyah’s current co-driver Mathieu Baumel and won it again three times (2012 and 2015-2016), before adding Saudi Baja success to his tally last November.
At the head of the FIA field, the outcome will now be fought out between two Toyota Hiluxes in the hands of five-time Dakar winner Al Attiyah and Argentina’s Juan Cruz Yacopini and an X-raid-run Mini John Cooper Works Rally Plus in the hands of Polish veteran Krzysztof Holowczyc and co-driver Lukasz Kurzeja.
Al Attiyah was triumphant on the Hail event for the first time back in 2011 as a member of the official Volkswagen factory team and added two Baja wins with Baumel to his record in 2020 and 2021. He returns to Hail on the back of that terrific performance last month that was rewarded with a fifth Dakar win.
Yacopini and Spanish co-driver Daniel Oliveras finished seventh on this year’s Dakar and crew the second of the Toyotas. Holowczyc also has vast experience of this motor sporting discipline after switching from special stage rallying and a distinguished career that netted him the European Rally Championship.
The Pole was the winner of the 2010 FIA World Cup for Cross-Country Bajas and the 2013 FIA World Cup for Cross-Country Rallies. His best result on the Dakar Rally was third overall in an X-raid Mini behind Al Attiyah and Giniel de Villiers in 2015.
The Baja is being managed by the Saudi Motorsport Company, in conjunction with the Saudi Automobile and Motorcycle Federation (SAMF) and the Ministry of Sport.
The event is running under the chairmanship of H R H Prince Khalid bin Sultan Al Abdullah Al Faisal, the President of the SAMF and in partnership with Abdul Latif Jameel (ALJ) Motors.
Competitive action gets underway a three-kilometre Qualifying Stage tomorrow afternoon from 16.30hrs. That takes place after the traditional ceremonial start(16.00hrs) adjacent to the Maghwat conference facility.