2025 Jordan Baja
FIA World Baja Cup, round 2
FIA Middle East Baja Cup, round 2
FIM Bajas World Cup, round 3
FIM Asia Baja Cup, round 2
April 10th-12th, 2025
For immediate release
Wednesday, April 9th, 2025
JORDAN BAJA GETS UNDERWAY FROM ARAB REVOLT PLAZA IN AQABA ON THURSDAY AFTERNOON
- Competitors set to tackle a 5.15km Prologue to determine starting order
AQABA (JORDAN): Jordan Motorsport’s sixth Jordan Baja fires into life in the Red Sea city of Aqaba on Thursday afternoon.
Competitors from 23 nations, competing across four FIA and FIM international championships, will tackle a 5.15km Prologue stage at South Beach, near Aqaba, from 13.45hrs before the ceremonial start takes centre stage at the Arab Revolt Plaza from 18.30hrs.
Race officials have made slight amendments to the challenging route through the awe-inspiring Wadi Rum desert region of southern Jordan. Drivers and riders competing in the FIM section will tackle a stage of 294.03km on Friday and a shorter test of 189.92km on Saturday before the ceremonial finish on Saturday evening.
Yazeed Al-Rajhi and Timo Gottschalk won this year’s Dakar Rally and are the early leaders of the 2025 FIA World Baja Cup. They top the FIA entry in the first of four Overdrive Racing Toyota Hiluxes, with Argentina’s Juan Cruz Yacopini and his Spanish co-driver Dani Oliveras holding second in the points’ standings and running the second of the Toyotas. Al-Rajhi last competed here in 2022, while Gottschalk won the event outright with Jakub Przygonski in a Mini All4 Racing in 2019.
Gottschalk said: “We are really looking forward to this event. We have not been here for a while. I have good memories. It is a really nice rally with nice terrain, stages and organisation. We will go to six rounds. We decided that Greece is a little too narrow for our big car so we will not go there this year and we will miss Portugal, which is a pity, because it is not fitting with the W2RC Championship.”
Dania Akeel is the defending FIA Middle East Baja Cup champion. The Saudi drives a third Toyota and currently holds a slender five-point cushion over Qatar’s Khalifa Saleh Al-Attiyah in the overall standings for the regional cup.
The vast majority of the early season contenders in both the FIA World and Middle East Baja Cups are present in Jordan with fierce competition expected in both the Challenger and SSV categories across both championships.
UAE-based Sergei Remennik holds third in the FIA World Baja Cup and currently leads the Challenger section from last year’s Jordan Baja winner Khalid Al-Jafla and Aleksei Shmotev.
Shmotev said: “I’ve never been to Jordan before, so I don’t know what to expect from the race. I’ve watched videos from previous years and the terrain definitely looks rocky. We will need to take care of the tyres and suspension.”
Al-Attiyah tops the Challenger section in the FIA Middle East Baja Cup from Qatari team-mate Ahmed Al-Kuwari, the absent Saudi Al-Saif and the defending MERC champion Abdulaziz Al-Kuwari. QMMF and Nasser Racing Team Taurus T3 Max machines dominate the entry in the Challenger category.
Ahmed Al-Kuwari said: “I did the race in 2024. Wadi Rum is a beautiful desert but also quite tricky when it comes to navigation. Last year, we opened the route and it was really difficult. It reminded me a lot of the stages in Al-Ula. Competition in Challenger is really strong and the battle is heating up. There are a lot of fast drivers and very motivated teams.”
With Dutchman Erik van Loon opting to compete in Morocco this weekend, the door is open for Abdullah Al-Haydan (Can-Am), Paul Severn (Polaris) and Maha Al-Hamali (Can-Am) to close the gap in the FIA World Baja Cup’s SSV section.
Emirati Mansour Al-Helai, Oman’s Hamed Al-Wahaibi and Italy’s Amerigo Ventura will also be chasing points in the class.
Al-Helai said: “This is my first Jordan Baja. I was in Jordan when I competed in the Middle East Junior WRC but I’ve never been to Wadi Rum desert. I’m looking forward to the whole experience.”
Ventura drives a Quaddy Racing Yamaha YXZ 1000R. He added: “This is a hard race in terms of navigation but we survived last year’s edition and we are focused to do even better. The other manufacturers in SSV have made a huge step up with the new cars. We’ll go flat out as always.”
The Nasser Racing Team’s Hamza Bakhashab is the son of the 1995 FIA Middle East rally champion, Abdullah, and will be hoping to defend a useful early advantage in the FIA Middle East Baja Cup’s SSV section. His Qatari team-mate Mohammed Al-Atteya will have other ideas.
Majed Al-Thunayyan won last year’s Stock category for series-production cross-country machines in the FIA Middle East Baja Cup and the Saudi’s progression to the FIA World Baja Cup sees the Qatari duo of Abdullah Al-Rabban and Mohammed Al-Meer battling it out themselves for regional cup success.
Tomorrow (Thursday), riders and drivers will tackle the 5.15km Prologue stage before heading to the Arab Revolt Plaza for the pre-event press conference and the traditional ceremonial start with the stunning backdrop of the Red Sea. Temperatures are set to plummet from the high thirties on Tuesday to a chilly 16-17°C over the weekend.
This year’s event also features a Jordan National Baja and the second running of the Wadi Al-Qamar Navigational Rally.
The 2025 Jordan Baja is sponsored by Zain Jordan, Markazia Toyota, Bank of Jordan, Manaseer Oil and Gas, Aqaba Special Economic Zone Authority (ASEZA), Guarantee Travel Group, Budget Jordan, Hala and Bliss FM.
FIA World Baja Cup – positions after round 1:
- Yazeed Al-Rajhi (KSA) 86pts
- Juan Cruz Yacopini (ARG) 70pts
- Sergei Remmenik (UAE) 63pts
- Erik van Loon (NLD) 58pts
- Miroslav Zapletal (CZE) 51pts
- Abdullah Al-Haydan (KSA) 49pts
- Majed Al-Thunayyan (KSA) 49pts
- Khalid Al-Jafla (UAE) 48pts
- Aleksei Shmotev (UAE) 47pts
- Paul Severn (GBR) 46pts
FIA Middle East Baja Cup – positions after round 1:
- Dania Akeel (KSA) 84pts
- Khalifa Saleh Al-Attiyah (QAT) 79pts
- Ahmed Al-Kuwari (QAT) 59pts
- Hamza Bakhashab (KSA) 59pts
- Saleh Al-Saif (KSA) 51pts
- Meshari Al-Thefiri (KUW) 45pts
- Abdullah Al-Rabban (QAT) 45pts
- Abdulaziz Al-Yaeesh (KSA) 41pts
- Abdulaziz Al-Kuwari (QAT) 36pts
- Nasser Al-Ajmi (KUW) 35pts
Ends
For further media information: Jordan Baja Media Service, E-mail: info@jordanbaja.com.
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