Overdrive Racing rounded off another successful season of cross-country motor sport with a dominant 1-2 finish in Jeddah Baja Toyota, the last round of the 2025 Saudi Baja Championship.
A third straight victory of the domestic season for Yazeed Al-Rajhi and Timo Gottschalk enabled the Riyadh driver to retain his Saudi championship title and finish a year that was marred by an April injury in winning style.
Al-Rajhi guided the latest specification Toyota Hilux Evo to the fastest time on the Prologue and the opening stage and took no chances over the final kilometres to win the event by 9min 52sec. The success for the Yazeed Racing star and defending Dakar champion was his sixth on the Jeddah event and his fourth successive victory with a Toyota on the Jeddah-based event.
The winning margin may have been a lot smaller and the result a lot closer had team-mates Dania Akeel and Sébastien Delaunay not picked up 10 minutes of time penalties for waypoint infringements and a two-minute speeding violation after stage one. Akeel guided her Jameel Motorsport-backed Toyota to the finish in second place, nearly 14 minutes ahead of Czech veteran Miroslav Zapletal.
Action got underway with a traditional Prologue of 10km to determine the starting order for the opening selective section of 208km through the deserts to the east of Jeddah. Al-Rajhi carded a run of 4min 55sec to take victory on the Prologue by just four seconds from Belgium’s Guillaume de Mévius. Akeel was third quickest.
Al-Rajhi said: « At the end of the Prologue, there was a Saudi biker who had broken the chain. We towed them for 60km. This was more difficult than doing the stage for me. We had to take care of a lot of cars on the road section. All went well on the Prologue but the real action starts tomorrow. »
Al-Rajhi was pushed hard throughout the first stage by De Mévius. The two drivers were separated by just three seconds after 120km but the Belgian hit mechanical trouble and lost over 30 minutes in the closing kilometres and Al-Rajhi was able to beat team-mate Akeel by 2min 59sec to win the stage and take the lead. Later time penalties for Akeel and a time credit of 1min 29sec, after being blocked by another competitor, pushed her 13min 30sec behind Al-Rajhi.
Yazeed said: « Timo and I did it well and we won the stage. It was a difficult stage with navigation and there were some places where it was difficult to know where to go. It’s the last race of the season and we enjoyed it. »
The shorter final stage ran for just 89km. A resurgent De Mévius claimed the stage win from Akeel but Al-Rajhi came home in fourth place to confirm a comfortable overall victory.
The final round of the 2025 Saudi Toyota Championship was organised by the Saudi Automobile and Motorcycle Federation (SAMF) and attracted a field of 28 cars, eight motorcycles and three quads, which was down on previous years.
Overdrive Racing now turns it attention to preparations for the Dakar Rally in January.
2025 Jeddah Baja Toyota – result
1. Yazeed Al-Rajhi (KSA)/Timo Gottschalk (GER) Toyota Hilux Evo 2hr 47min 20sec
2. Dania Akeel (KSA)/Sébastien Delaunay (FRA) Toyota Hilux Evo 2hr 57min 12sec
3. Miroslav Zapletal (CZE)/Marek Sykora (SVK) Ford F-150 Evo 3hr 01min 10sec
4. Hamza Bakhashab (KSA)/Marcin Pasek (POL) Can-Am Maverick R 3hr 04min 25sec
5. Mansour Al-Helai (UAE)/Khalid Al-Kendi (UAE) Can-Am Maverick R 3hr 12min 52sec
6. Saleh Al-Saif (KSA)/Albert Veliamovic (LTU) Can-Am Maverick X3 3hr 23min 34sec
7. Hamad Al-Harbi (KSA)/Fahad Al-Amr (KSA) Can-Am Maverick X3 3hr 26min 22sec
8. Guillaume de Mévius (BEL)/Mathieu Baumel (AND) Mini JCW Rally 3.0i 3hr 29min 57sec
9. Abdullah Al-Fahhad (KSA)/Leander Pienaar (RSA) Can-Am Maverick X3 3hr 37min 17sec
10. Faris Khalaf Al-Moshana (KSA)/Nasser Al-Tamini (KSA) Nissan Patrol 3hr 38min 56sec…