JEDDAH, 21 January 2007 — Saleh Al-Saleh, as expected, won the final round of the Mobily Desert Race after taking overall lead by finishing first in car category here on Friday.
Saleh produced a very exciting show, kept his first-day lead intact and drove his Cherokee to the podium by clocking 1 min 58.241 sec.
Motlaq Al-Dosari managed second spot and clocked 2min 03.067sec followed by Hawari Wassim, who took third with 2 min 03.839 sec.
Saif Al-Marzogi won the Toyota Land Cruiser Cup being as fastest driver in the competition, clocking 02:27:330
Saleh Abdulalli held his grip in the motorcycle section by claiming first position. He clocked 1 min 23.591 sec. Abdul Latif Al-Gandel ranked second position with 1 min 24.635. Yasser Al-Khalaf held on to third, clocking 1 min:25.926.
The two-day event was supported by the General Presidency of Youth Welfare and with the support of Mobily as the main sponsor and Toyota as the official car. Bison energy drink, Mobil 1 and Okaz are among the other supporters.
Competitors had to drive again with new plans and new techniques giving the race a very exciting mood .The competition between the modified cars and the standard ones reached its peak when the modified ones snatched the first place. A special ceremony was held after the event for the distribution of awards to the winners in “Mobily Desert Race 2006 final round” in the presence of Saudi Motor Sport Committee representatives and General Presidency of Youth Welfare.
This championship comes as the finale of the multisports activities, which were set up by Mobily in Saudi Arabia during 2006 under the auspices of the General Presidency of Youth Welfare, the High Authority for Tourism. The region’s strong contenders participated in the first round of the race held at Half Moon Bay in Alkhobar. The second round was held at Al-Zaeriah in Riyadh for two days. Qualifiers from the Central and Eastern regions participated in the final challenge round in Jeddah to determine the Kingdom’s desert race champion.
“The success of the event will encourage the authorities to promote motor sports in Saudi Arabia and organize more championships in future, said Abdullah Bakhashab, Kingdom’s ace rally driver and organizer of the event.
On the first day all the participants drove across sand dunes and on desert track. Mobily, the first telecommunication company to support such event and the main sponsor remarked that talent abounds in Saudi youth, who are talented and adventurous; thus the desert rallies are being organized to promote their skill.
“I hope more young Saudis will take part in international events once the desert rally becomes popular in the Kingdom,” said Bakhashab optimistically.
After the successful staging of the many races we organized such as “Tatees” in the Bahra region in 2004, Race of Champions, The Karting and “The Autocross”, we found that it is a suitable place to concentrate on desert races,” Bakhashab stressed.
