JEDDAH: Abdul Latif Jameel Group Ltd. (ALJ)-Toyota celebrated its 10 years of support for the Kingdom’s motorsport here recently. It announced Toyota Racing Program Saudi Arabia, one of its ambitious projects. It will include three championships — Toyota Karting Championship, Toyota Autocross Championship and Toyota Baja Rally Championship — in addition to Toyota School for Karting and Rally Driving.
Saudi champion Abdullah Bakhashab was the one who first put Kingdom on the motorsports world map. His dream of organizing the sport in his country faced lot of hurdles for want of sponsors. Soon Abdul Latif Jameel Group Ltd.-Toyota helped his dream come true.
In 1997 Toyota sponsored Bakhashab in the Middle East Rally Championship. In 1998 this partnership shot to fame by jumping to the World Rally Championship from the Mideast championship and renamed the team as Toyota Team Saudi Arabia (TTSA). In 1999, Toyota entered into collaboration with Bakhashab to launch the safety and safe driving campaign in several Saudi cities.
In 2000 this program was developed and many attendees were granted permission to accompany Bakhashab as co-drivers. In the meantime, the Toyota Rally Team Saudi Arabia got the approval of the International Automobile Federation (FIA) to adopt the Toyota Cup Championship within the Middle East. The year 2001 saw the founding of Toyota School for safe driving and organizing the first official race in the homeland (the Race of Champions) through Toyota sponsorship. The year 2002 was the last year of Bakhashab with Toyota as a rally driver. Then he launched the new Toyota Rally Team Saudi Arabia (TRTSA) with 3 Saudi drivers by 2003 and 2004 the team achieved impressive results. The year 2005 witnessed a qualitative leap for ALJ-Toyota after its decision to move its investment of this sport for the national rank and that is through the support of the Saudi youth and to bring out distinct people through the championships organized by Abdullah Bakhashab which included Saudi Star Autocross race, the Desert Race Challenge and yearly IN 10 SO school Olympics at IN 10 SO center.
In 2006 and 2007, ALJ-Toyota also moved forward with the emergence of the International Hail Rally to sponsor this major event. Toyota Land Cruiser was the official car of the International Hail Rally. This support included the sponsorship of Hail drivers whereas Toyota champions managed to be on the podium driving the Toyota Land Cruiser, which moved in 2008 from national level to the international level.
Now, after 10 years there are many success stories of Saudi Champions in the national and international events, but there remains the strategic alliance of Abdullah Bakhashab and Toyota that was formed in 1997.
Since the launch of this comprehensive program, a karting school was started and 15 qualified drivers participated in the 1st and 2nd rounds of Toyota karting championship. Toyota also launched the 1st and the 2nd rounds of Toyota Autocross Championship, leaving the last and decisive round in the tournament to be held on Nov. 19-20.
Preparations are under way to receive youth who want to participate in the rally school and the participation of skillful school drivers in the four rounds of Toyota rally championship, whereas the 1st round will be in Jeddah in November, and the 2nd round in Alkhobar on Dec. 30 and Jan. 1. The 3rd round will be held within Hail Rally 2009 on Jan. 26 -27 and the final round in Riyadh on Feb. 18-19.
