DUBAI: On a glorious weekend for Saudi Arabian motorsport, drivers from the Kingdom dominated the Italian Baja with Yazeed Al-Rajhi wining the race in the T1 category, Saleh Al-Saif finishing first in T4, and Dania Akeel making history to win the T3 title at the FIA World Cup for Cross Country Bajas event.
Al-Rajhi and co-driver Michael Orr, driving in a Toyota, won the penultimate round of the FIA World and European Cups for Cross Country Bajas, to lead the championship ahead of the season-closing Baja Portalegre in Portugal on Oct. 28-30.
Akeel becomes the first Saudi or Arab woman to win the competition, completing a remarkable comeback from a serious injury suffered earlier this year.
She first took part in the competition at the Sharqiyah Baja 2021, the third round of the World Cup, under the supervision of the FIA and the Saudi Arabia Motor Federation.
Akeel told Arab News that despite sustaining three pelvic fractures while participating in the Bahrain Rally Season, she was still planning to compete in the 2022 Dakar Rally which will take place in Saudi Arabia next January.
“In the last season, I suffered an accident and sustained three pelvic fractures, affecting my spine in Bahrain in March 2020, which forced me to return to Saudi Arabia to undergo medical tests and physical therapy,” she said.
