A flying Nasser Saleh Al-Attiyah and British rider Alex McInnes topped the times in the car and motorcycle categories on the 12.78km Aseza Prologue stage that kickstarted the weekend’s off-road action at the Jordan Baja on Thursday afternoon.
The short desert stage was held near the village of Rahmeh to the north of Aqaba and determined the starting order for the first of the stages through Wadi Rum on Friday.
Al-Attiyah had initially entered the event with Fabian Lurquin but Max Delfino returned as his navigator for a second time in an MD Optimus Buggy. The Qatari stormed to the quickest time in the car category by 36 seconds.
Toyota Gazoo Racing’s Saood Variawa is competing in Jordan for the first time with French navigator François Cazalet. The South African was second quickest. He said: “It’s my first time here. I don’t know what to really expect in the stages. We did a little shakedown but it was quite tricky – a lot of mountainous sections and river beds. We will push as always. The vast majority of us got lost in the first two corners of the Prologue.”
Defending regional Baja champion Dania Akeel was the first into the stage in her Toyota Hilux and carded the target time of 9min 57.1sec. That put the Saudi down in seventh position.
Fellow Saudi Arabian driver Yasir Seaidan was the man to beat in the Challenger category. The Taurus Evo Max driver was fourth quickest overall and 9.6 seconds ahead of World Baja Cup runner Abdulaziz Al-Kuwari. Omani veteran Hamed Al-Wahaibi began his weekend’s challenge strongly with third in Challenger but Abdullah Al-Fahad stopped in the stage.
Seaidan said: “The Prologue was tricky, rocky and with very hard navigation. It was hard in the dust with the T2s in front of us, so we had to overtake them. We finished first in the Challenger category.”
Al-Kuwari added: “It was complicated and very difficult to drive. The navigation was tough. From the start we saw many cars had lost the way and came back. We didn’t lose the road but we started behind the T2 cars and, many parts, we were driving in the dust. We took the full points in Challenger in the World Cup. That was good for us.”
Pole Tomasz Bialkowski was the class of the SSV field in his Polaris RZR Pro R Sport. He was classified in third overall and well clear of Team Liwa’s young Emirati Mansour Al-Helai (Can-Am) in the SSV category. Argentina-based Fernando Alvarez is the early leader of the SSV section in the FIA World Baja Cup but finished the Prologue near the rear of the field.
Farah Zakaria is the first Jordanian driver ever to tackle the FIA section on her home event. The youngster completed the Prologue in 23rd position with German navigator Jennifer Lerch in an R-X Sport Can-Am Maverick.
Qatar’s Abdullah Al-Rabban (Nissan) got the better of his four rivals in the Stock category for series-production cross-country vehicles and was quickest from Abdullah Al-Shegawi (Toyota) and Nissan rivals Al-Mashna Al-Shammeri, Majed Al-Thunayyan and Ahmad Al-Muhannadi.
FIM Bajas World Cup leader Alex McInnes was the quickest rider on the Prologue with a time of 11min 19.7sec but several of his rivals played the tactical game. While Marcin Talaga was his closest challenger in the stage, MX Ride Dubai’s defending champion Mohammed Al-Balooshi was down in ninth position and Rafic Eid was fifth.
Abdulaziz Al-Atawi topped the times in the quads on his Yamaha from Saudi rivals Ahmad Al-Jaber and Hani Al-Noumesi after the latter stopped near the finish for tactical reasons.
Thirty-two FIA crews, 24 FIM riders, 14 Jordan National Baja entrants and 53 teams competing in the Wadi Al-Qamar Navigational Rally will cross the official start podium on Thursday evening at the Ayla resort in Aqaba.
The 2026 Jordan Baja is sponsored by Zain Jordan, Markazia Toyota Gazoo Racing, KUMHO tire, Ayla, the Aqaba Special Economic Zone Authority (ASEZA), Hala and Bliss FM.
Tomorrow (Friday), competitors head into the depths of Wadi Rum for a special stage of 225.71km that starts and finishes in Humaymeh, an ancient trading post in southern Jordan that was founded by the Nabataean king Aretas III in the first century BC.
The stage offers spectacular back drops and vistas through one of the most beautiful parts of the world. The first motorcycle will be on stage at 07.30hrs with the first of the FIA machines following an hour later.
Source: Jordan Baja
