Dakar Rally returns to Saudi soil

Saudi Arabia will once again host the Dakar Rally, the most demanding motorsport event on the planet. In the first week of 2022, the world-famous competition will take place across the Saudi desert, pitting the best endurance drivers of cars, motorbikes, trucks and quads against each other.

The 44th edition of the world's most famous rally will be the third to take place in the Saudi country and will start in Ha'il and finish in the Red Sea city of Jeddah. 

The 2022 Dakar Rally will be held in the Saudi desert between January 2-14, organisers Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO) and the Saudi Arabian Automobile and Motorcycle Federation (SAMF) announced in a virtual event.

“Welcome for the third time to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the home of the Dakar Rally, the most famous and toughest rally in the world,” Prince Khalid bin Sultan Al Abdullah Al-Faisal, Chairman of SAMF, said. “Thanks first and foremost to our wise leadership, and guidance of his highness the Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and the goal of his Vision 2030, the Kingdom was able to attract and host the Dakar Rally for the first time in 2020, after many years when it moved between Africa and South America,” he said, also reported by Arab News.

Saudi Arabia hosted the Dakar Rally after it had been held in previous years on the African continent and in South America. However, issues such as insecurity due to terrorist threats led to the sporting event being moved to another venue, such as Saudi Arabia. All of this is also part of the Saudi government's Vision 2030 strategy, which aims to diversify the country's economic activity so that it does not depend mainly on the oil sector. For years, the Kingdom has been seeking to diversify its activity in order to promote other sectors such as tourism, sports and new technologies, with the aim of not depending on the oil sector. One of the most famous sporting events is the Dakar Rally, a lure for the Middle Eastern country to promote itself and, in this case, the sports sector. 

David Castera, director of Dakar, discussed the main points regarding the 44th edition of the race, which included the start, finish and rest day cities, in addition to the number of stages the competitors will face in January 2022. He also spoke of the difficulties of organizing the rally in the middle of the pandemic: “The 2021 Dakar was complicated to organize,” Castera said. “In the middle of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, Dakar was one of the few major events that were held at the beginning of the year. All thanks to Saudi Arabia,” he said. “To all the Saudis who have mobilized with us so that the Dakar can happen, this Dakar allowed you to discover new tracks, new deserts, new dunes and all that gave us quite an incredible show. Suspense in the bike race until the last days when we didn’t know who would win. In the car race as well, until two or three stages from the finish, it was very tight.”

Regarding the new 2022 edition, Castera pointed out that "it will be an edition with a taste of sand, taste of dunes and wide open spaces".

“Ha’il will be the start city of this 2022 edition, where all the technical and administrative scrutineering will take place as well as the shakedown,” Castera said. “This year will have three for the three classes — bikes, cars and trucks. Then a prologue on (Jan.) 1st, and the real start of this Dakar will be on the 2nd of January in the morning and will head south towards the Empty Quarter. We’ll have three stages with 100 percent sand and dunes, including a marathon stage in the middle of the dunes, like in the good old days,” he added. “And then comes a novelty — we’ll go up to Riyadh for a rest day. During that rest day their will be transfer of vehicles that will be put on trucks, and transfer of competitors in planes.”

Week two will introduce four rather difficult stages, and, according to Castera, a lot of navigation, and more dunes. “We have based this Dakar on mainly sand and dunes,” he said. “Once you’ve gone through all these obstacles, you’ll arrive in the city of Jeddah, which will welcome the podium ceremony before the vehicles board the ship to head back to Europe.”