The Saudi Automobile and Motorcycle Federation (SAMF), in conjunction with the Ministry of Sport and in partnership with Abdul Latif Jameel (ALJ) Motors Toyota, is putting the finishing touches to Rally Qassim 2023, round three of the Saudi Toyota Championship on November 23rd-25th.
Rally Qassim 2023 will be based out of the Mövenpick Qassim in the city of Buraydah and gets underway with a ceremonial start in the nearby National Park (13.45hrs) and a Prologue (15.20hrs) of four kilometres on Thursday, November 23rd. It is being run by the SAMF headed by H.R.H. Prince Khalid bin Sultan Al-Abdullah Al-Faisal.
Action then continues with two desert selective sections of 187km on Friday, November 24th and 121km on Saturday, November 25th. The prize giving ceremony will take centre stage in the National Park from 19.30hrs after the conclusion of the final desert stage.
This year’s Saudi Toyota Rally Championship consists of four rounds. The Saudi Baja and Tabuk-Neom events took place in February and May and the Jeddah Rally (December 14th-16th) will bring the series to a conclusion.
Rally Qassim has attracted 79 entries, with 42 cars and 30 motorcycles and seven quads gracing the entry list. The car category is further broken down into 18 T1 cars, one in T1+, 12 production class T2 machines, six lightweight prototype T3s, four T4s and one T5 truck.
Rally Qassim ran for the first time in 2019 and victories in the respective car, NUTV, motorcycle, quad and truck categories fell to Yazeed Al-Rajhi, Khalil Al-Tuwaijri, Mohammed Al-Balooshi, Abdulmajeed Al-Khulaifi and Ibrahim Al-Muhanna.
There were no events in 2020 and 2021, but Rally Qassim returned to the Saudi Toyota Championship in 2022 and Al-Rajhi retained his car title in a Toyota Hilux.
Success in the T2, T3 and T4 categories went to the Saudi trio of Abdullah Al-Sanad, Hamad Al-Harbi and Saeed Al-Mouri. Mishal Al-Ghuneim prevailed on two wheels and Al-Khulaifi won for a second time in the quad category.
Neil Perkins,