Rally Jameel, the first all-women’s rally raid in Saudi Arabia, was held over the weekend with a three-leg battle from Hail to Riyadh. By the end, the #21 Swedish Challenge duo of Mikaela Åhlin-Kottulinsky and Annie Seel were triumphant. The all-Swedish duo accumulated 2,166.590 points, over nine more than runner-up Atefa Saleh and Eleanor Coker of Galaxy.
Unlike other rally raids that are dependent on speed and time, Rally Jameel uses a points system that rewards teams based on their navigation skills. Sharing a Toyota RAV4, Åhlin-Kottulinsky and Seel racked up the most points in the first leg but was deducted twelve points due to penalties that sank them to third with a score of 544.552, trailing decorated Saudi off-roader Dania Akeel and Susana Hernando‘s 549.984 but still the best of the five AW4 class teams. Swedish Challenge took the lead in the second leg with a performance that totalled 856.545 points, giving them the edge over a trio of American teams led by the #27 of Rosamond Dana and Susanne Saxten. Leg #3 saw the U.S.-based Team Wild Grace of Lyn Woodward and Sedona Blinson lead the overall with 771.882 points, while Swedish Challenge ranked tenth with 763.476; despite the drop, the #21 still topped AW4 by thirty-one points.
By the end, Swedish Challenge’s 2,166.590 points topped the leaderboard while Galaxy finished second with 2,157.263. Rounding out the podium with 2,155.246 points was the Toyota Prado of Saudi driver Maha Al Hamly and Pochola Hernández.
Åhlin-Kottulinsky headlined the field of sixty-eight drivers as the current Extreme E Championship leader, where she is incidentally also paired up with a fellow Swede in Johan Kristoffersson at defending champion Rosberg X Racing. She posted on Instagram, “First ever female rally in Saudiarabia – and we got P1! We are of course really happy, but the main thing about this rally is the spirit it had, promoting female drivers, each one of us supporting each other throughout the event, and inspiring the young generation, or actually all generations that if you wanna become a female racer – you can!
“It’s been a pleasure sharing the car with Annie, I’ve learned so much from all her experience of navigation in the desert and how to tackle its obstacles […] And also for those average speed zones, Annie killed it / it’s not as easy to manage to keep average of 38/43/49 km/h as you may think!!”