JEDDAH, 20 February 2004 — Saudi Arabia’s former rally champion Abdullah Bakhashab announced the launch of Kingdom’s first official autocross championship — Saudi Star — at a press conference at Bakhashab Bothers Citroen Showroom here on Monday.
The Bakhashab Brothers Company are the main sponsors of the event. Bakhashab revealed at the meeting a yearlong program for motor sports development activities. The Saudi Star Championship event will launch the program with the timetable for other events to be announced soon.
“The remarkable success achieved in the “Jeddah Star” event organized last year as part of Jeddah Summer Festival, led to the staging of this autocross championship,” Bakhashab said.
“The Saudi Star Championship will comprise four rounds. The first round will start March 24-25 in Durat Al-Arus, Jeddah, where the fastest driver will be discovered. The second round will be in Riyadh in the 3rd week of June to find the fastest driver in Riyadh. The third round to be staged in Alkhobar in the 1st week of September and here too the top driver of the region would emerge. And after the Eid Al-Fitr holidays, the final round will be staged again in Jeddah, where the Kingdom’s champion will be announced.”
Bakhashab said, the first day will be the classification day with the participants going through a stern, and the qualifiers for next round will come from this pool.
At least six and seven groups of drivers will be formed and each group will contest bestof- three series for the top driver of the group. The next day, the drivers emerging top in their respective groups will contest and the champion will be nominated “Saudi Star”.
This championship is open to all nationalities.
All the participant needs is a driving license and a car, Bakhashab said. He added, after the qualification round, the selected drivers will all be given Citroen cars to drive for the next round. Classification of participants will be based on car make, model and engine power, said Bakhashab , while adding: “The organizers of the championship have taken all necessary measures to prepare the race courses.” This year, he said, the number of participants is expected to exceed sixty.
“A judge and 12 marshals around the track will keep watch on the drivers. If anybody hits a barrier, the marshals will flag him and the driver will lose one point,” he said.
All drivers will be given time to acclimatize themselves with the course. The winners will be awarded trophies and cash awards from the sponsors, he said.
Stressing the importance of organizing autocross championship in Saudi Arabia, Bakhashab mentioned that autocross is popular in Arab world and that several Arab countries organize the championship all through the year.
“We had prepared several studies concerning motor sports development and found that a high percentage of youngsters wish to see sports event and activities organized locally in Saudi Arabia,” Bakhashab said.
“Our aim is to help Saudi youth attest their driving talents and skill in the right places and specialized arenas away from endangering people’s and their own lives by racing cars in the city streets and highways,” he added. We are now offering our youth the chance to join the world of sports. These events are not costly for the participants, and therefore, they offer the opportunity to discover new talents.
Soon after the autocross championship the Jeddah enthusiasts will see world rally champions in action when the new carting championship will be staged, he said. He didn’t elaborate when.
He expressed thanks to Bakhashab Brothers, Citroen agent; Mobil Oil; Bison energy drink; Kudu; V-Kool; and Seiko, the official time for their sponsorships, for their constant support.
Last year the winner of Jeddah Star was a Syrian national Fadi Hamada, who won the event by clocking 1:12 secs.
Khalid Bakhashab, general manager of Citroen Cars, said the successful performance of Citroen cars in Jeddah Star event last year encouraged us to renew our sponsorship this year in order to support this sport and its growing popularity in Saudi Arabia.
