Badawi Trail to the Last Oasis 2026, Syd Stelvio Day 4 – Madinah to Yanbu – 388km
Today was a pretty late start by the standards of this rally, with the first car not set to depart until 9:01. Despite this many of us would still have woken with the Fajr, as the Adhan rang out from the nearby Quba Mosque, the oldest Mosque in the world, dating back to the 7th century CE. The oldest car on our rally isn’t quite as ancient as that, but at 118 years of age, it was nearly there at the dawn of the automobile. At that age it will need some TLC to get it through an event such as this, and this morning it was receiving some mechanical attention to the radiator to get it through another day on the road.
The crew in the number one machine will no doubt have been pleased that today was only 388km, with a potential arrival into tonight’s coastal hotel at Yanbu by 3pm, almost as good as a day off after the toil of the days one through three. But although it was shorter, it was no less intense and many of today’s miles would be offroad, through some fearsome rock gardens. Unsurprisingly, there were a few machines that would fall victim to the jagged geology, but that would come later, after an 80km run out of the city on a near deserted highway, that took us towards the Al-Faqra mountains, and the days first regularity.
Like all of the competitive sections today, this was offroad, and the rocks and stones would lay claim to at least two cars before tarmac returned. The tracks through the dust and dirt weren’t always obvious, and care had to be taken no to stray too far offline, or too far off the right track if you wanted to keep your trip in check. It was clearly a section that suited the pair of ProDrive Mustangs on the event, as they shared the spoils of best on reg, picking up seven seconds of penalty apiece. It was probably easier to drive the tracks above the regulation speed, matching the frequency of the corrugations, but judging by the minimal early penalties issued at the time controls, most drivers managed to resist the temptation to open the taps.
One car hoping for a better day off road was the Datsun 240Z of Zane Bhatti and Masood Bhatti, after the low-slung machine had been given the gift of some ground clearance with a bit of mechanical help from the sweeps and by jettisoning some weight! Anything to get a bit of daylight under the chassis. Unfortunately, the reg would bestow more misery upon them, as they broke a rear strut, ending their day before it had even really begun. There were also problems for the Fitzcharles’ in the tangerine Fangio. The car was crabbing like a shopping trolley, no doubt making the handling a nightmare on the gravel roads. Despite the rear wheel steering they had managed a respectable run through the reg, but something was badly wrong. Luckily the Sweeps were positioned just as the cars rejoined the main road and diagnosed a displaced rear axle, thankfully before anything more serious had occurred and it wasn’t long before the crew were on their way again.
The hops between the days competitive sections were short and sweet, and transported the cars through the ever-changing scenery of the mountains. The geology and colours were changing rapidly, from bright orange substrate to the more muted tones of granite. There were barren valleys of scree, that then changed to palm filled oasis’ as the roads meandered on. The days only time control section was up next, in an unusual location behind the walls of a dam, where the entire valley should have been underwater. Some may have wished that had been the case, so they hadn’t had to pick a path through the rancorous rocks strewn across the valley surface, rocks that would pierce not one but two tyres on the Peugeot 504 of Michael and Jakob Haentjes. The father and son team had already suffered a puncture and only had one spare remaining. Sweeps to the rescue again, fitting one of the tyres with a tube that must have been made from Armadillo hide, getting the Pug back underway, when all had seemingly been lost.
They weren’t the only ones to suffer wheel damage, as the orange Porsche of Ned and Kat Bacon also blew a tyre out on the rocks, with Ned using his off-road racing experience to get them back underway again and back into the day.
The final regularity was another example of the region’s diverse palette of scenery, beginning with more rocky climbs, before a sprint across arid flatlands, flanked by fields of scrubby trees and meadows home to camels. The route was fairly straight, pulling the cars towards the distant peaks of Jabal Jar and Jabal Radwa, the highest in the region at over 2000 metres. There were even grasslands to enjoy, before a steep climb to the final time control. Riley driver Federico Göttsche Bebert attacked the climb as though he had a personal vendetta against gravity, coming into the time control sideways, almost connecting with the Clerk of the Course John Spillers truck. In contrast, the Bentley Le Mans of Harry Tayler and Andrew Thompson climbed the hill in a far statelier manor, though the climb will have been a touch nerve wracking for the boys, as they are nursing a cracked radiator.
Car 16, the Mustang of Xavier de Sarrau and Lucas de Sarrau arrived at the same time control bang on time, the only crew managing to achieve a zero on the long reg, so they must also have pulled into the time control at the exact moment that Spiller wasn’t lighting up a Gitanes, so his hands were occupied only with the clock. As they had been in the morning, the crew in the green Mustang were best on the reg and, indeed best on the day, with only 12 seconds of penalty. They are now leading the Classic Category and are the first pair to best the gloss black Ford V8 Coupe across a leg, though Richard Clark and Jonathan Round remain firmly in control overall. Swiss crew Susanna Lüscher and Sandro Tanner had also enjoyed a great day in the other Mustang, with only 14 seconds of penalty, and second best on the day.
Tomorrow is a longer day, as the rally heads to Al Ula and a rest day in a desert cocoon. There are only a pair of competitive sections, but the day’s drive should be one of the best of the rally, and one of the most demanding. Until then!
Syd.