Tabuk Toyota Rally – May 8th-11th, 2024    

2024 Saudi Toyota Championship, round 2

For immediate release

Thursday, May 9th, 2024

AL-RAJHI, AL-BALOOSHI AND AL-NOUMESI FASTEST ON PROLOGUE STAGE AT TABUK TOYOTA RALLY  

TABUK (SAUDI ARABIA): Yazeed Al-Rajhi, Mohammed Al-Balooshi and Hani Al-Noumesi set the quickest times in the car, motorcycle and quad categories on the seven-kilometre Prologue stage at the start of the Tabuk Toyota Rally 2024 on Thursday afternoon.

The second round of the Saudi Toyota Championship organised by the Saudi Automobile and Motorcycle Federation (SAMF) attracted a final starting list of 47 machines (29 cars, 12 motorcycles and six quads).

They were flagged away from the ceremonial start at King Khalid City in Tabuk by H.R.H. Prince Khaled bin Saud bin Abdullah Al-Faisal bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud, Deputy Governor of the Tabuk province, and SAMF President H.R.H. Prince Khalid bin Sultan Al-Abdullah Al-Faisal.

The bikes and cars began the stage in reverse order and Saudi quad rider Mohammed Al-Name opened proceedings in front of an excitable crowd at the helm of his Honda TRX 700XX quad.

Championship leader Yazeed Al-Rajhi and his German co-driver Timo Gottshalk guided their Overdrive Racing Toyota Hilux to the fastest time of 5min 50sec in the overall car category and the Ultimate P section.

That was comfortably quicker than the time set by their second-placed team-mates Dania Akeel and Stéphane Duplé in a dominant Toyota 1-2. But the results for the Prologue changed markedly when time penalties were added late on Thursday evening. Akeel was handed a two-minute penalty and slipped down to 13th and there was a similar penalty for Esraa Al-Dkheil.

Moaaz Hariri teamed up with Kirill Shubin to deliver a potent stage performance in his Can-Am Maverick XRS Turbo RR. A time of 6min 26sec catapulted the Saudi into second on the stage and atop the SSV standings. Abdullah Al-Shegawi was his closest SSV rival.

Saudi Can-Am Maverick driver Hamad Al-Harbi came home in third and headed the Challenger category from Dark Horse OT3 driver and series leader Saleh Al-Saif. Maha Al-Hameli was third quickest in the category.

Abdulaziz Al-Yaeesh was the fastest of the Nissan drivers in the Ultimate class in ninth place but rivals Ahmed Al-Shammeri and Faris Al-Moshna lost a lot of time with technical issues and plummeted to the rear of the rankings.

Sufian Al-Omar set the fastest time in the Stock category for series-production cross-country vehicles.

MX Ride Dubai’s Mohammed Al-Balooshi finished behind leading Saudi rider Abdulhalim Al-Mogheera in the unofficial bike results on his Husqvarna Rally. But time penalties were then added to the stage times and the Emirati was declared the winner in the provisional results.

Saudi’s Ahmed Al-Jaber tied with Kuwaiti Abdullah Al-Shatti for third place. Emirati Kove rider Ibrahim Bugla suffered delays in the stage and slipped to the rear of the motorcycle standings.

Abdulaziz Al-Shayban showed a useful turn of sped in Spain recently and the Yamaha rider topped the quad standings in the Prologue with a time of 7min 51sec to beat Hani Al-Noumesi and Abdulaziz Al-Atawi. But time penalties were awarded to his time later and the stage win was handed to Al-Noumesi. Abdulrahman Al-Abdullatif failed to finish the stage.

Tomorrow (Friday), competitors tackle a 245km selective section that starts in the Zaita desert on the Hisma Plateau, near Tabuk, and finishes 95km from the service park. The first bike is due on stage at 08.15hrs and the leading car at 09.40hrs.

2024 Tabuk Toyota Rally – Prologue result (unofficial @ 20.30hrs):

Cars (top 16 only)

  1. Yazeed Al-Rajhi (SAU)/Timo Gottschalk (DEU) Toyota Hilux 5min 50sec
  2. Moaaz Hariri (SAU)/Kirill Shubin (FIA) Can-Am Maverick XRS Turbo 6min 26sec
  3. Hamad Al-Harbi (SAU)/Aleksei Kuzmich (ARE) Can-Am Maverick X3 6min 46sec
  4. Saleh Al-Saif (SAU)/Nasser Al-Kuwari (QAT) OT3 6min 54sec
  5. Abdullah Al-Shegawi (SAU)/Raed Al-Asaf (SAU) Can-Am Maverick XRS Turbo 7min 04sec
  6. Maha Al-Hameli (SAU)/Oriol Vidal (ESP) Can-Am Maverick X3 7min 08sec
  7. Hamza Bakhashab (SAU)/Marcin Ludwik (POL) Can-Am Maverick X3 7min 12sec
  8. Waleed Al-Dhakeel (SAU)/Egor Okhotnikov (FIA) Can-Am Maverick XRS Turbo 7min 16sec
  9. Abdulaziz Al-Yaeesh (SAU)/Omar Al-Lahim (SAU) Nissan Patrol 7min 28sec
  10. Al-Mashna Al-Ramali (SAU)/Abdullah Al-Ramali (SAU) Nissan Patrol 8min 07sec
  11. Orjwan Ammar (SAU)/Khalid Al-Kendi (ARE) Can-Am Maverick XRS Turbo 8min 12sec
  12. Khaled Al-Shammeri (SAU)/Majed Al-Shammeri (SAU) Nissan Patrol 8min 15sec
  13. Dania Akeel (SAU)/Stéphane Duplé (FRA) Toyota Hilux 8min 19sec
  14. Mubarak Al-Zbaidy (SAU)/Hassan Ali Obaid (ARE) Nissan Pick-Up 8min 22sec
  15. Abdullah Al-Haydan (SAU)/Bader Al-Ajmi (KWT) Can-Am Maverick X3 8min 31sec
  16. Annett Quandt (DEU)/Annie Seel (SWE) Can-Am Maverick X3 8min 31sec

Bikes

  1. Mohammed Al-Balooshi (ARE) Husqvarna Rally Bike 7min 40sec
  2. Abdulhalim Al-Mogheera (SAU) KTM 450 8min 03sec
  3. Ahmed Al-Jaber (SAU) KTM 450 8min 29sec
  4. Abdullah Al-Shatti (KWT) Husqvarna Rally Bike 8min 29sec
  5. Mishal Al-Ghuneim (SAU) Husqvarna 450 Rally 9min 32sec
  6. Philip Horlemann (ARE) Husqvarna FE501 10min 32sec
  7. Jason Joslin (KWT) Husqvarna 350 FE 10min 32sec
  8. Eid Rafic (LEB) Husqvarna EXCF 11min 07sec
  9. Hamdan Al-Ali (SAU) Honda CRF 450 RX 12min 39sec
  10. Bader Al-Hamdan (SAU) Yamaha WR450 F 12min 47sec
  11. Hanno Geyser (ZAF) Beta                    22min 48sec
  12. Ibrahim Bugla (ARE) Kove 450 Rally 30min 06sec

Quads

  1. Hani Al-Noumesi (SAU) Yamaha Raptor 700 8min 21sec
  2. Abdulaziz Al-Atawi (SAU) Yamaha Raptor 700 8min 25sec
  3. Abdulaziz Al-Shayban (SAU) Yamaha Raptor 700 9min 51sec
  4. Mohammed Al-Name (SAU) Honda TRX 700XX 11min 29sec
  5. Haitham Al-Tuwaijri (SAU) Yamaha Raptor 700 12min 23sec
  6. Abdulrahman Al-Abdullatif (SAU) Can-Am Renegade 800 2hr 00min 00sec

Ends

Follow live timing:

http://rally.matsport.fr/

SPORTITY APP – Code TN24AUTO and TN24MOTO

For further information: Saudi Toyota Championship (samf.gov.sa)

 

 

Published On: 9 May 2024