Overdrive Racing’s Juan Cruz Yacopini and his Spanish navigator Dani Oliveras earned their first FIA World Baja Cup victory with outright success on their first appearance at the Aqaba-based Jordan Baja.

Maximum points on the third round of the series gives the Argentina and the Spaniard the outright lead in the series but the win was marred by an accident which sidelined their team-mates, Yazeed Al-Rajhi and Timo Gottschalk, on the last stage. Al-Rajhi led overnight and had passed all the motorcycles when he appeared to stray off the designated route slightly and hit a big sand hole at speed, the impact resulting in back pain for both Al-Rajhi and Gottschalk. Two pursuing motorcycle riders and a quad rider stayed with the crew until medical support arrived and the duo were airlifted from the scene to undergo medical examination. They were both fully conscious and in a stable condition as the event reached its conclusion in Aqaba.

Yacopini said: “I am really happy to finish this race. It was a tough one and I enjoy a lot. It was my first time and, for sure, I will come again. We had a good pace on the last stage. The road book was good but quite hard, so Dani had to see a lot of tracks and we had to be really focused. We both made a good job. I am proud of my team and of myself to win my first World Cup event.” Jordan marked the first event for Poland’s Martin Kaczmarski since Morocco last year. He teamed up with Spaniard Armand Monleón to crew the third of the Overdrive Toyotas but was not registered for either of the Baja Cups. The duo held second overall after day one but suffered suspension damage on the final day and retired.

Dania Akeel and Stéphane Duplé ran a fourth Overdrive Racing Toyota and were registered to defend Akeel’s 2024 FIA Middle East Baja Cup title. The Saudi was unable to complete the first stage after sustaining suspension and steering damage after an impact in a sand hole. But she recovered strongly on the second stage to pick up valuable points towards the regional cup after finishing 20^th. Akeel said: “It’s always a real pleasure to drive this car. We had fun driving. The road book was a bit tricky and we had a problem with the alarm system because we started near the back. We caught a lot of cars and no-one was moving out of the way.

“We started the first stage so well and were in P2 more or less in the overalls and then we crashed into a ditch. There was a section where he had to make a decision on which track to take and took the wrong one and, after that, we didn’t have any notes from the book because we were on the wrong line and there was a big hole waiting for us at the end of a fast flat.”A Prologue of 5.15km at South Beach, near Aqaba, determined the starting order for the weekend’s action. Toyotas filled four of the top five positions with Al-Rajhi leading the way 21.5 seconds ahead of his nearest rival. Kaczmarski, Akeel and Yacopini were closely matched in third, fourth, and fifth positions.

Day one’s opening stage across the red rock formations and eerie moonscapes of Wadi Rum was modified substantially before the start. It was split into two sections of 215.02km and 78.55km before a return to Aqaba for the night halt. Al-Rajhi opted to start third on the road behind Yacopini and Zapletal and he quickly overtook the motorcycles to hit the front with Yacopini running close behind. The Saudi suffered a scare before the start when he forgot his crash helmet but rival Hamza Bakhashab came to the rescue with a spare one and he managed to win the stage from Kaczmarski by 6min 16.3sec. Yacopini came home in a close third but Akeel stopped early in the stage with broken suspension after a heavy landing in a sand hole.

Al-Rajhi said: “It was not an easy day for us. It was the first time in my life that Timo and I forgot the helmet in the service but (Hamza) Bakhashab and his co-driver help us and gave us a helmet five minutes before the start.” Kaczmarski added: “For me, it is not easy to come back after a few years. The stage was really tricky and stony in places. The car is really fast. I love it. The landscape here is simply awesome.”

Competition was rounded off with a second stage of 189.92km through Wadi Rum, which was held in cool, sunny and windy conditions. Al-Rajhi was on course for a first win in Jordan until a heavy impact forced the crew out with back injuries and that paved the way for Yacopini to storm through to take his first FIA World Baja Cup win and throw the FIA World Baja Cup title race wide open.The 2025 FIA World Baja Cup continues with Baja Greece on May 29^th-June 1^st.