Dakar Rally presentation confirmed for Dec.31

JEDDAH:THE 45th edition of the world-famous Dakar Rally will be returning to Saudi Arabia from Dec. 31st, 2022, to Jan.15th, 2023, for the season-opening round of the FIA World Rally-raid Championship.

In preparation for the event, organisers Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO) and Promoter Saudi Motorsport Company (SMC), will be hosting the Official Dakar Rally presentation online on Dec.1st at to launch the specified Route for the Dakar Rally 2023.

Viewers will be able to atend the event by following the link on the Dakar Rally website, where they can learn all about the brand-new route the world’s toughest endurance race is taking through the Kingdom as well as the new sporting features for the 2023 edition and more information on all of this year’s participants.

Dakar Rally fans can expect two weeks of thrilling, non-stop adventure as the world’s most fearless endurance racers navigate their cars, trucks, bikes, and quads across Saudi Arabia’s magnificent desert, mountain, and coastal landscapes.

This year will be the fourth successive year the event will be held in the Kingdom, with several significant sporting and technical changes - including a new route and sporting rules – confirmed by the event organisers.

This year, event organisers ASO announced, there will be a brand-new route that will see the challengers cross various terrains from the shores of the Red Sea in the west through to the sands of the Arabian Gulf in Dammam in the east.

It will be made up of 14 stages and a prologue, making it the most stages to be held in the Saudi Arabian editions to date. It is believed each stage will cover distances of between 350km and 500km, with the average stage covering around 450km.

70% of the route will be completely new ground for the rally. It will start at the Sea Camp in Yambu before travelling east towards Alula and Ha’il where the drivers will take on two loop sections. The rally then begins its journey south stopping in Al Duwadimi for another loop before a well-deserved rest stop for all in Riyadh. Once recuperated, the journey will continue east towards Haradh before travelling south-east for the ultimate 3-day challenge: the Empty Quarter.

Once more, the iconic Empty Quarter will be returning, covering a vast landscape of challenging sand dunes in a desert the size of France. Within this area will be the marathon stage where competitors will be forbidden from receiving external assistance from their teams overnight – a section not for the faint-hearted.

Once the marathon stage is over, competitors will travel north along the Arabian Gulf coast, passing Shaybah and Al-hofuf before reaching the final stage in Dammam.