Przygonski braces up for Desert Challenge

abu dhabi — Yas Marina Circuit is laying on a big welcome for the world’s top cross country rally drivers and riders as Poland’s Jakub Przygonski prepares to tackle a huge test in the 29th Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge.

The Capital is fully geared up for the return of an event which forms the second round of the 2019 FIA World Cup for Cross Country Rallies for cars and buggies and also the opening round of this year’s FIM Cross-Country Rallies World Championship.

Przygonski, runner-up to Czech driver Martin Prokop in last year’s Desert Challenge, is attempting to clinch back-toback victories in the UAE after winning the Dubai International Baja for the second year in a row last week alongside German codriver Timo Gottschalk in a Mini John Cooper Works Buggy.

But with a procession of the world’s other top drivers and cross country rally machinery heading for Yas Marina Circuit, the event’s official HQ, the defending FIA world champion faces a daunting examination when the rally breaks out over the majestic dunes and salt flats of the spectacular Al Dafrah Region.

Among his rivals will be two of the top three in this year’s World Cup standings after the opening round in Qatar, Saudi Arabia’s Yazeed Alrajhi and Russia’s two-times Desert Challenge winner Vladimir Vasilyev, as well as defending champion Prokop.