JEDDAH: Saudi Arabian driver Dania Akeel secured a sensational victory in the FIA Middle East Baja Cup to secure the overall title at last weekend’s three-day Dubai International Baja.

Akeel tackled the four rounds of the prestigious regional Baja series with two different co-drivers and three car preparation companies to amass enough points to win the overall championship and also secure success in the flagship Ultimate category.

Akeel recorded consistent performances at each of the four rounds in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Jordan and Dubai and finished on the FIA Middle East Baja Cup podium at each event.

The Jeddah-based driver secured points with an Overdrive Racing Toyota Hilux at the opening two Bajas and even led the Qatar event outright after day one.

She then switched to the SSV category for the final two rounds to record  a valuable finish in the Aqaba-based Jordan Baja with a Santag Racing Can-Am Maverick XRS Turbo RR and then a sensational victory at the final round in Dubai with the South Racing Can-Am Team. The success marked a first by a female driver in the history of Middle East motorsport, as Akeel continues to break boundaries and create new benchmarks for women in motorsport.

Akeel said: “The FIA Middle East Baja Cup developed into a very exciting season. Initially, I did not plan to do the whole championship. I took part in the Hail Baja as part of the Saudi Championship and I registered for the FIA Middle East Baja Cup to see how the points would look.

“We had a good result in Hail and then we had the opportunity to race with a Toyota and the Overdrive team in the Ultimate category at the Qatar Baja,” she added. “After that event, we saw that we had taken the lead in the Ultimate class in the Middle East Cup and were in second place in the overall classification.

“With this position, I decided to do the Jordan Baja, because there was only a seven-point gap between myself and the leader of the overall. He was racing in the SSV class and I decided to race in the same class because we needed to close the gap with the leader. After that event, we finished in first place in the Middle East SSV class and we closed the gap to the leader to just two points before the final event in Dubai.

“After racing in SSV, we raced in the SSV class again and we won in Dubai to secure the overall title. It was an exciting championship and it had a lot of elements to consider. It wasn’t just about the team and logistics but we had to think how we could gain the maximum points to win the overall title. I am also very happy that we secured the Ultimate class title but our bigger goal was the overall title.

Akeel credited her success to her dedicated co-drivers Stephane Duple and Sebastien Delaunay and the support of teams such as Overdrive, South Racing, and SRT Racing.

She also acknowledged the backing of her sponsors, including Jameel Motorsport, Tamer Group, Hertz Saudi Arabia, Toyota Motor Oil, BFGoodrich Tires, Accelerom, and Red Bull Saudi Arabia.

She now switches her attention to Jeddah Rally Toyota, the final round of the Saudi Toyota Rally Championship, which takes place on Dec. 19-21.