Neil Perkins

 

HAIL — The Saudi Arabian Toyota Land Cruiser crew of Khalaf Joan Al-Shammeri and Joan Al-Shammeri were the unofficial leaders of the Hail International Rally after the fourth leg across the An Nafud desert Wednesday.



Third overall at the start of the day, the Saudis inherited the outright lead when the UAE’s Khalid Al-Jafla stopped with technical issues. Khalaf Joan reached the stage finish with the unofficial ninth quickest time, which was sufficient to take a slender lead over Owaid Mansi and Hamad Nasser in another Toyota.



Wednesday’s fourth leg of Saudi Arabia’s FIA-sanctioned premier off-road motor sport event offered 256.55km of desert competition for the cars in a route of 485.41km and 104.45km for the bikes, which started an hour after the cars.



Rajeh Al-Shammeri was the form driver through the first two passage controls and he had built up a virtual stage lead of 1m 05sec over Mutair Al-Shammeri by PC2.



Overnight leader Khalid Al-Jafla incurred a 33-minute penalty at the overnight halt and still led the event by 17min 42sec at the restart. He left Hail second on the road in his Chevrolet Buggy, but the Emirati had lost 14 minutes by PC1 and then stopped for over an hour and lost his outright lead trying to fix a technical problem, before stopping again.



Rajeh Al-Shammeri continued to lead Ali Al-Kitbi and Mutair Al-Shammeri at the third passage control, although time penalties imposed Wednesday morning from the previous day’s stage had changed the look of the top 10.

Behind Al-Jafla, Owaid Mansi was promoted to second overall and Khalaf Joan Al-Shammeri climbed into the third spot, ahead of Ahmed Shuhail and Mutair Al-Shammeri.



Rajeh Al-Shammeri, who began the day 17th overall after first day woes, was the first to cross the finish line and set a target time of 4hr 02min 03sec. But Al-Kitbi was running well after starting ninth overall and 15th on the road and recorded the fastest time of the day of 4hr 01min 48sec in his Nissan Patrol.



Meshal Al-Khaledi headed the bike contingent into the penultimate stage with an overall lead of 2min 18sec, but it was fifth-placed Ahmed Al-Nasser who was quickest at PC1. Al-Nasser held on to claim the stage win on a Honda CRF, but Al-Khaledi extended his unofficial overall lead in the bike and quad categories on his Yamaha.



Majid Al-Jerpiea had stopped on Tuesday’s stage to assist the injured Waleed Khalid Zabeidi, who had fallen in the desert. Al-Jerpiea stayed with his fellow Saudi until the Civil Defense helicopter arrived to ferry the stricken rider to hospital for treatment.



Thursday’s final leg of the event will see the vehicles tackle a 296.59km route. The ceremonial finish is set for Maghwat Conference Center.