QASSIM RALLY TOYOTA 2024

Saudi Toyota Championship, round 3 – October 23rd-26th, 2024

 or immediate release

Wednesday, October 23rd, 2024

 

QASSIM RALLY TOYOTA GETS UNDERWAY IN BURAYDAH ON THURSDAY AFTERNOON

BURAYDAH (SAUDI ARABIA): Qassim Rally Toyota gets underway with a ceremonial start and Prologue stage in Buraydah on Thursday afternoon.

The third round of the 2024 Saudi Toyota Championship is being organised by the Saudi Automobile and Motorcycle Federation (SAMF) and has attracted an unofficial field of 38 cars,  18 motorcycles and six quads.

The event is being held in conjunction with the Ministry of Sport and in partnership with Jameel Motorsports as an official partner and Saudi Investment Bank as a strategic partner. The organising team is headed by SAMF President H.R.H. Prince Khalid bin Sultan Al-Abdullah Al-Faisal.

Defending champion Yazeed Al-Rajhi and his German navigator Timo Gottschalk are aiming to win the Saudi Toyota Championship yet again. Al-Rajhi leads the overall Drivers’ Championship by 21 points from Challenger rival Saleh Al-Saif and Overdrive Racing team-mate Dania Akeel, with Abdulaziz Al-Yaeesh and Moaaz Hariri well-placed to challenge with a good result this weekend.

Al-Rajhi leads the Ultimate P category, Al-Yaeesh tops the Ultimate list from Faris Al-Moshna, while both Al-Saif and Hariri have commanding leads in their respective Challenger and SSV classes. Muneef Al-Shammeri leads Jafar Al-Qahtani by 16 points in the Stock section for series production cross-country machines.

Top seed Mohammed Al-Balooshi heads the motorcycle standings by 14 points from Saudi rival Abdulhalim Al-Mogheera. Kuwait’s Abdullah Al-Shatti, Hamdan Al-Ali and Ahmed Al-Jaber are the closest challengers.

Haitham Al-Tuwaijri currently has a 10-point advantage over Hani Al-Noumesi in the tussle for the quad championship with Abdulaziz Al-Shayban and Abdulaziz Al-Atawi needing a top finish in Buraydah to take the battle to the final round in Jeddah in December.

The event ran for the first time back in 2019 when Yazeed Al-Rajhi claimed victory in the car category in his customary Toyota. Khalil Al-Tuwaijri won the now defunct NUTV class and Mohammed Al-Balooshi, Abdulmajeed Al-Khulaifi and Ibrahim Al-Muhanna were triumphant in the motorcycle, quad and truck categories.

Following a two-year absence from the calendar in 2020 and 2021, the event returned as the round of the Saudi Toyota Rally Championship in 2022. Al-Rajhi teamed up with Dirk von Zitzewitz to win the car category again and Abdullah Al-Sanad, Hamad Al-Harbi and Saleh Al-Saif claimed success in the T2, T3 and T4 sections. Mishal Al-Ghuneim topped the bike standings and Al-Khulaifi was triumphant again in the quads.

Al-Rajhi, Al-Sanad and Al-Balooshi won their respective race categories again last year. Al-Saif switched to the T3 section and beat off a strong field in his Can-Am, Maha Al-Hameli won in T4 and Haitham Al-Tuwaijri emerged as the top quad rider.

Thursday’s timetable of events starts with the official pre-event press conference at the Mövenpick Qassim in Buraydah from 11.00hrs.

The ceremonial start will then take place from 14.00hrs onwards in the nearby National Park and the seven-kilometre Prologue stage to determine the starting orders will follow from 15.00hrs with the motorcycles and quads preceding the cars into action.

Qassim Rally Toyota 2024 – leading entries:

Ultimate

  1. Yazeed Al-Rajhi (SAU)/Timo Gottschalk (DEU) Toyota Hilux
  2. Dania Akeel (SAU)/Stéphane Duplé (FRA) Toyota Hilux
  3. Miroslav Zapl;etal (CZE)/Marek Sykora (SVK) Ford F-150
  4. Abdulaziz Al-Yaeesh (SAU)/Omar Al-Lahim (SAU) Nissan
  5. Faris Al-Moshna (SAU)/Saud Al-Tamimi (SAU) Nissan, etc

Challenger

  1. Saleh Al-Saif (SAU)/TBA TBA
  2. Annett Quandt (DEU)/Annie Seel (SWE) Yamaha YXZ 1000R
  3. Maha Al-Hameli (SAU)/Oriol Mena (ESP) Can-Am Maverick X3
  4. Hamad Al-Harbi (SAU)/Aleksei Kuzmich (ARE) Can-Am Maverick X3
  5. Hamza Bakhashab (SAU)/Martin Pasek (POL) Can-Am Maverick X3
  6. Abdullah Al-Haydan (SAU)/Bader Al-Ajmi (SAU) Can-Am Maverick X3
  7. Waleed Al-Dhakeel (SAU)/Egor Okhotnikov (ANA) G Rally Team OT3

SSV

  1. Moaaz Hariri (SAU)/TBA Can-Am Maverick XRS Turbo RR
  2. Esraa Al-Dkheil (SAU)/TBA TBA
  3. Abdullah Al-Shegawi (SAU)/Raid Al-Asaf (SAU) Can-Am Maverick XRS Turbo RR
  4. Orjwan Ammar (SAU)/Khalid Al-Kendi (ARE) Can-Am Maverick XRS Turbo RR
  5. Ahmed Al-Shegawi (SAU)/Ali Mirza (ARE) Can-Am Maverick XRS Turbo RR
  6. Salem Al-Dhafeeri (KWT)/Waleed Al-Dhafeeri (KWT) Can-Am Maverick XRS Turbo RR
  7. Mona Kurdi (SAU)/Albert Veliamovič (LTU) Can-Am Maverick XRS Turbo RR

Stock

  1. Muneef Al-Shammeri (SAU)/Fahd Al-Omar (SAU) Nissan Patrol
  2. Jafar Al-Qahtani (SAU)/Hussam Al-Zahrani (SAU) Nissan Patrol
  3. Majed Al-Thunayyan (SAU)/Fahad Al-Sufyani (SAU) Nissan Patrol
  4. Sufian Al-Omar (SAU)/Yasir Al-Khuraif (SAU) Nissan Patrol
  5. Faisal Al-Sharari (SAU)/Mazen Al-Saeedi (SAU) Nissan Patrol

Bikes

  1. Mohammed Al-Balooshi (ARE) KTM Rally Bike
  2. Abdulhalim Al-Mogheera (SAU) KTM Rally Bike
  3. Abdullah Al-Shatti (KWT) Kawasaki KX450
  4. Hamdan Al-Ali (ARE) Honda CRF 450RX
  5. Ahmed Al-Jaber (SAU) KTM Rally Bike
  6. Eid Rafic (LBN) Gas Gas 450 Rally Replica
  7. Mishal Al-Ghuneim (SAU) Husqvarna 450 Rally Replica
  8. Martin Chalmers (ARE) Gas Gas 450 RFR
  9. Hanno Geyser (ZAF) KTM Rally Replica
  10. Ehab Al-Hakeem (SAU) Fantic Rally Factory
  11. Badr Al-Hamdan (SAU) Kove
  12. Jain Ganesh (LBN) Kove Rally Pro 450, etc

Quads

  1. Haitham Al-Tuwaijri (SAU) Yamaha Raptor 700
  2. Hani Al-Noumesi (SAU) Yamaha Raptor 700
  3. Abdulaziz Al-Shayban (SAU) Yamaha Raptor 700
  4. Abdulaziz Al-Atawi (SAU) Yamaha Raptor 700
  5. Abdulrahman Alabdullatif (SAU) CF Moto C Force 1000
  6. Hussam Al-Khowiter (SAU) Yamaha Raptor 700

Ends

SPORTITY APP – Code QASSIM24AUTO and QASSIM24MOTO

For further information: Saudi Toyota Championship (saudi-championship.com)

 

 

Published On: 23 October 2024