JEDDAH (SAUDI ARABIA): Yazeed Al-Rajhi, Abdulhalim Al-Mogheera and Haitham Al-Tuwaijri set the quickest times in the car, motorcycle and quad categories on the opening Prologue stage of Jeddah Rally Toyota on Thursday afternoon.

The final round of the 2024 Saudi Toyota Rally Championship attracted a final start list of 31 cars, 12 motorcycles and four quads. They were flagged away from the ceremonial start by H.R.H. Prince Khalid bin Sultan Al-Abdullah Al-Faisal, the Chairman of the Saudi Automobile and Motorcycle Federation (SAMF).

Three cars are entered in the Ultimate P class, eight in Ultimate, nine in Challenger, five in SSV, five in Stock and one T5 Truck. Al-Rajhi set the pace on the 10km opening stage at Khulais that will determine the starting order for the first desert stage on Friday morning.

The Overdrive Racing Toyota Hilux driver and German navigator Timo Gottschalk stopped the clocks in 6min 32sec to beat German X-Raid Yamaha pilot Annett Quandt by 16 seconds. Quandt and her Swedish co-driver Annie Seel topped the Challenger category from local driver Waleed Al-Dhakeel (MC-5).

Moaaz Hariri (Can-Am) beat Abdullah Al-Shegawi (Can-Am) to the quickest Prologue time in the SSV section, while the early momentum in the Stock section for series-production cross-country machines went in favour of Mohammed Al-Asiri in his Nissan Patrol.

Mohammed Al-Balooshi always rides to his own canny strategy in off-road events in the Middle East and often prefers to cede the Prologue stage win to his rivals to enable him to follow them into the opening desert stage. The KTM rider finished the Prologue in sixth position amongst the motorcycles behind winner Al-Mogheera, UAE-based Briton Alex McInnes, Ehab Al-Hakeem, Philip Horlemann and Doha-based Australian Martin Chalmers.

Haitham Al-Tuwaijri drew first blood in the quad category. The Yamaha Raptor 700 rider completed the stage on the same time as rival Abdulaziz Al-Shayban with Abdulaziz Al-Atawi and Hani Al-Noumesi coming home in third and fourth.

Jeddah Rally Toyota 2024 is being organised by the (SAMF) in conjunction with the Ministry of Sport, with official partner Jameel Motorsport and strategic partner Saudi Investment Bank.

Tomorrow (Friday), competitors will tackle a desert stage of approximately 191km that gets underway from Qudaid, north of Jeddah.

Jeddah Rally Toyota 2024 – Prologue result (unofficial):
(Top 5 only)

Cars (top 20 only)
1. Yazeed Al-Rajhi (SAU)/Timo Gottschalk (DEU) Toyota Hilux 6min 32sec
2. Annett Quandt (DEU)/Annie Seel (SWE) X-Raid Yamaha YXZ 1000R 6min 48sec
3. Waleed Al-Dhakeel (SAU)/Egor Alexandrovich (ANA) MC-5 6min 54sec
4. Moaaz Hariri (SAU)/Kirill Shubin (KGZ) Can-Am Maverick XRS Turbo RR 6min 59sec
5. Abdullah Al-Shegawi (SAU)/Raid Al-Assaf (SAU) Can-Am Maverick XRS Turbo RR 7min 06sec

Bikes
1. Abdulhalim Al-Mogheera (SAU) KTM Rally Bike 6min 59sec
2. Alex McInnes (ARE) Husqvarna FE 450 7min 19sec
3. Ehab Al-Hakeem (SAU) Yamaha WR 450F 8min 24sec
4. Philip Horlemann (ARE) KTM 450 Rally Replica 9min 02sec
5. Martin Chalmers (QAT) GasGas 450 RFR 9min 33sec

Quads
1. Haitham Al-Tuwaijri (SAU) Yamaha Raptor 700 8min 17sec
2. Abdulaziz Al-Shayban (SAU) Yamaha Raptor 700 8min 17sec
3. Abdulaziz Al-Atawi (SAU) Yamaha Raptor 700 9min 09sec
4. Hani Al-Noumesi (SAU) Yamaha Raptor 700 10min 40se

Source: SAMF