Yazeed Al-Rajhi‘s hopes of winning the Dakar Rally on his home soil evapourated when he crashed halfway. A month later, while not the World Rally-Raid Championship, he began the FIA World Baja Cup on a strong note when he won the Saudi Baja for the seventh time.
Al-Rajhi set the tone when he won the first stage, but had an off performance in the second stage as he finished fourth, five and a half minutes behind winner João Ferreira. Despite Al-Rajhi’s stumble, Ferreira just narrowly missed out on closing the gap entirely as Al-Rajhi beat him by just thirty-eight seconds.
“It’s always nice to win here,” commented Al-Rajhi. “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.”
Juan Cruz Yacopini lost out to Ferreira in Stage #2 by forty-seven seconds, and was too far back to catch Rokas Baciuška for the final spot on the overall podium. Baciuška, the Stage #1 runner-up, was running his second race in the top-level Ultimate class after the Baja Aragón last summer, improving upon his ninth in that race.
Dania Akeel was sixth in her Ultimate début behind Aliyyah Koloc. Unlike the quartet ahead of them, the two are competing for FIA Middle East Baja Cup points.
Despite not being the Challenger victor, João Dias‘ second-place finish still earned him the win among World Baja Cup racers and he thus leaves Saudi Arabia tied for the outright lead with SSV winner Fernando Álvarez. Amerigo Ventura, third in the 2023 FIA European Cup, suffered a mechanical issue on Friday that knocked him out of the race, though his Quaddy Racing team-mate Ahmed Al-Kuwari won the SSV class in Middle East Baja.
While Nasser Al-Attiyah is not defending his FIA World Baja championship, Mohammed Al-Balooshi‘s hopes of a second consecutive title on the FIM Baja World Cup side are off to a good start as he notched his fourth Saudi Baja win in as many tries. He won Stage #1 ahead of Abdullah Alshatti, and the latter tried to return the favour when he beat him for third the following stage but could not narrow it enough.
“I am very happy to win this rally for the fourth time. I have a perfect record here in Saudi. I have never lost the Saudi Baja,” commented Al-Balooshi after the second stage. “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. Thanks to this, I’m leading the FIM Bajas World Cup standings.”
Philip Horlemann was the lone entrant in the FIM’s newly created Trail category for twin-cylinder bikes with over 600cc in engine displacement. Racing the Husqvarna FE 501 enduro bike, his time would have ranked him seventh among all motorcycles.