Variawa Wins the Jordan Baja as Al-Balooshi’s Run Ends

Saood Variawa and François Cazalet won the 2026 Jordan Baja in 4hr 41min 37.3sec after a last-day charge through Wadi Rum. The Toyota Gazoo Racing crew started Saturday fourth, then took the cars as Alex McInnes won the bikes and broke Mohammed Al-Balooshi’s five-win hold on the same desert.

That Aqaba result still sits as Variawa’s fattest score of the season. He banked 82 points for the win, and after Baja Spain Aragón in September he led the FIA World Baja Cup on 232 points with Portugal next.

Variawa Caught Akeel in the First 60 Kilometres

Jordan Motorsport based the three-day race in Aqaba from February 12 to 14, with the cars covering 421.09 km of specials over two desert days. Friday’s 225.71 km stage left the South African 2min 54.4sec behind Lionel and Lucie Baud. Saturday’s 195.38 km run through Wadi Rum flipped the order.

Variawa said he caught Dania Akeel in the first 60 km and kept pushing. He set the fastest time by 4min 26.7sec and sealed a debut victory in the Aqaba-based Jordan Baja by 3min 51.8sec. The FIA noted he became the seventh different winner since the event’s first running in 2018.

Quite good on our side. We caught Dania (Akeel) in the first 60km and we carried on pushing to the end of the stage. The last bit was really tricky in the rocky sections but we did a good job. It was a tricky rally and a lot to learn. The terrain was a lot different to what I am used to. It ended up quite nicely.

Saood Variawa, Toyota Gazoo Racing, after the Jordan Baja finish

Akeel and navigator Sébastien Delaunay were second-quickest on the last stage in an Overdrive Racing Toyota Hilux Evo and finished in 4hr 45min 29.1sec. The Saudi, last year’s FIA Middle East Baja Cup winner, was hunting World Cup points this season. Nasser Saleh Al-Attiyah, in an MD Optimus, dropped to fourth overall, 5min 38.8sec off the win, but still left Aqaba in front of the Middle East cup.

THE 2026 JORDAN BAJA CAR ORDER

The final FIA classification shows 32 crews started and 28 finished. Yasir Seaidan kept the Challenger class in a Taurus after Hamed Al-Wahaibi took a 10-minute penalty on Thursday. Hedda Hosås, with Pol Tibau, won Friday’s SSV stage and placed eighth overall in a Can-Am Maverick R.

The Mini That Led by 1.8 Seconds

Friday did not look like a Toyota 1-2. The Bauds, in the only diesel X-Raid Mini JCW Rally Plus in the lead pack, climbed through the field over the closing kilometres and beat Al-Attiyah by 1.8 seconds, 2hr 33min 19.7sec to 2hr 33min 21.5sec.

Lionel Baud said his daughter’s notes were “beautiful navigation” and that he felt comfortable enough to push. Lucie Baud called the stage tougher than Dakar because it demanded more focus, and she liked the idea of opening Saturday with few tracks to follow. They opened, then lost the lead as Variawa attacked, and still held third, 4min 38.8sec behind the Hilux.

Al-Attiyah was tasting southern Jordan for the first time, according to the organizer’s Friday report. The two-wheel-drive buggy struggled on the climbs and then used its weight in the open desert, leading the special before Baud pegged him back. Akeel had led the early checkpoints and then eased off. “I kept my mind more on the conservative side with a lot of caution,” she said.

Seaidan opened the road and found mountains and rocks he compared with Dakar. “I thought Jordan Baja would be easy,” he said, before Variawa passed him at 70 km and Al-Attiyah went by at 150 km. The Saudi still finished fifth overall and second in the Middle East cup after Aqaba.

McInnes Ended Al-Balooshi’s Five-Win Run

On two wheels the script was supposed to be Mohammed Al-Balooshi’s. The Emirati, riding for MX Ride Dubai, had won the Jordan Baja five times since 2019, skipping only the cancelled years. He arrived with a hand injury from a short Dakar, called Wadi Rum a second home, and left in fourth.

Alex McInnes, the only Junior on the FIM grid, won an 11.78 km prologue at the Ayla marina and chose to start Friday 10th. He led from the first checkpoint, built a 13min 28.3sec gap after 225.71 km, and managed Saturday after what he called a stupid early mistake. Abdulhalim Al-Mogheera won that stage and still finished 6min 25.6sec behind. The FIM posted McInnes’s victory by over six minutes, his second of the season after Ha’il.

McInnes’s total was 6hr 54min 17.7sec on a KTM 450 SX-F. Al-Mogheera’s 7hr 00min 43.3sec included a 5min 27sec bonus from Friday, when the Saudi stopped to help Sultan Al-Balooshi after a heavy crash. Sultan finished that stage and then retired. Abdullah Al-Shatti took third on a Kawasaki despite a 2min 10sec penalty. Al-Balooshi, 7hr 18min 00.0sec, took a two-minute speeding penalty and sat 23min 42.3sec behind McInnes.

The navigation failure, not the crash, is what undid the five-time winner. He started second on Friday, lost the cap on his Stella instrument, and went off at kilometre 11. He then rode the last 100 km with McInnes, swapping the front.

For me, it was really tough. I had a problem with my Stella. The cap didn’t work and then I got lost at kilometre 11. I struggled and then I got back and found a lot more riders. Then, I had a fun ride with Alex. I put a sponge that you use to wash the plates in my glove and I had no problems with the hand.

Mohammed Al-Balooshi, MX Ride Dubai, Jordan Baja Friday halt

Jordan’s Zaid Jaber placed fifth on a GasGas. Joanna Modrzewska, the only woman in the bike field, scored the Women’s points again in 12th on a Triumph. Hani Al-Noumesi won the quads on a Yamaha YFM 700R by more than 11 minutes from Ahmad Al-Jaber, and by 21 minutes from Abdulaziz Al-Atawi. Twenty of 24 FIM starters made the finish.

The Record Field Checked In at Ayla

The sporting losers of the weekend still used Aqaba as a cup round. The quieter winners were the people who put the field on the Red Sea and sent it into Wadi Rum.

Jordan Motorsport had already locked the February window as round two of the FIA World and Middle East Baja Cups, and of the FIM Bajas World Cup, when it posted the Aqaba dates. The FIA calendar then moved the race two months earlier than the 2025 April running so it sat after the Saudi Baja and before the start of the Holy Month of Ramadan. The Saudi opener in Ha’il ran January 29-31, less than two weeks after Dakar, to cut shipping costs for crews already in the region.

The start podium and the ceremonial finish sat on the marina at the Ayla resort. Friday’s long stage started and finished in Humaymeh, an old Nabataean trading post. Organizers listed Zain Jordan, Markazia Toyota Gazoo Racing, KUMHO, Ayla, the Aqaba Special Economic Zone Authority, Hala and Bliss FM as backers. The Jordan Baja site listed a field of close to 130 teams once the World Cup classes, a national baja and the Wadi Al Qamar navigational run were counted together.

WHAT AQABA PUT ON THE GROUND

• The base: Crews lived and finished at Ayla in Aqaba, with the prologue at the marina rather than in the desert.
• The route: Two Wadi Rum selectives of 225.71 km and 195.38 km, plus an 11.78 km bike prologue, after a Thursday ASEZA opener for the cars.
• The extra classes: A national baja and the Wadi Al Qamar navigational event ran beside the FIA and FIM cups.
• The land: The specials used a protected desert that UNESCO inscribed on the World Heritage List in 2011, inside the Aqaba Special Economic Zone.

Variawa, on Friday, said it was his first time in the country and his first time racing this terrain, and that opening the road with no bike line made him nervous. McInnes called it the most unique rally of his career, with enduro rock at the start and a small tip-over, then a shared run with Al-Balooshi. The last 20 km on Saturday were, in his words, very rocky. Aqaba sold that mix: marina paddock, then a UNESCO desert that still bites.

Seven Different Winners in Seven Staged Races

The car result fits a pattern the bike result just broke. Every staged Jordan Baja has given the four-wheel cup to a new crew. The motorcycle cup had been Al-Balooshi’s since 2019.

THE JORDAN BAJA, EDITION BY EDITION

1. 2018: First running from Aqaba. Essa Al-Dossary wins the cars. Ata Al-Hmoud wins the bikes. No quads.
2. 2019: The event joins the FIA World Cup calendar. Al-Balooshi takes the first of five bike wins.
3. 2020: Cancelled during the COVID-19 pandemic.
4. 2021: Returns to both FIA and FIM calendars. Yasir Seaidan wins the cars. Al-Balooshi wins the bikes again.
5. 2022: Saleh Al-Saif wins the cars. Al-Balooshi completes a third bike win.
6. 2023: Cancelled after the outbreak of the Gaza war.
7. 2024: Khalid Al-Jafla wins the cars. Al-Balooshi’s fourth bike win.
8. 2025: Juan Cruz Yacopini wins the cars in April. Al-Balooshi’s fifth bike win. Hani Al-Noumesi wins the quads.
9. 2026: Variawa wins the cars in February. McInnes wins the bikes. Al-Noumesi repeats on quads.

Seven staged races, seven car winners, two blank years. The 2023 gap is the same war that emptied Petra of visitors. By February 2026 the FIA was willing to send the World and Middle East cups back to Aqaba, and the entry lists filled. Gulf crews still packed Challenger, SSV and Stock. They did not take the overall car or bike trophies home.

What the Cups Looked Like After Jordan

Al-Attiyah left fourth on the road and first in the Middle East math. Among drivers registered for that regional cup he scored 86 points in Jordan, matching his Saudi Baja haul, for 172 points after two rounds. Seaidan had 155. Mohammed Al-Marri had 128. Qatar and Dubai still had to run.

The World Cup uses the same Aqaba weekend as one of eight rounds, best six to count. Variawa’s 82 points for the win dwarfed his 45 from Saudi Arabia. Akeel took 68 for second. Baud, who had not scored in Ha’il, took 57 for third.

POINTS AFTER THE AQABA ROUND, THEN SPAIN

Al-Helei’s Jordan weekend ended on Saturday, yet by September he sat second in the World Cup on 212 points after strong European rounds. Akeel’s Italy score shrank when she completed only one of three specials. Variawa skipped Greece, scored 39 in Italy, then 66 for second in Spain, and still leaned on Aqaba as the round that built his lead.

McInnes left Jordan with two FIM wins from two starts and a date in Portugal in April. Al-Balooshi took Veteran honours in Aqaba and fourth overall. The Gulf still owns the Middle East cup and the quad class. The two trophies that sit on the Ayla marina went to a factory Toyota from South Africa and a British Junior on a KTM.

The World Cup’s European run closes at Portalegre from October 15 to 18, then the series returns to the Gulf for the Qatar International Baja on October 28-31 and Dubai on November 5-8. Aqaba’s piece of that calendar is already in the books: a Saturday Hilux, a broken five-win bike run, and a marina finish that did what ASEZA and Ayla paid for.

Frequently Asked Questions

How Does the FIA World Baja Cup Award Points?

Registered crews add their overall classification to their group result on a 30-to-2 scale down to 15th, with one point if they retire. Stage points run from five for first to one for fifth, and the prologue pays three, two and one, except in Junior and Master. Titles cover overall drivers, navigators and teams, plus Ultimate, Challenger, SSV, Stock, Junior and Master, and the best six scores from eight rounds count.

How Large Is the Wadi Rum Protected Area?

UNESCO lists the property at 74,200 hectares, about 60 km northeast of Aqaba and 290 km south of Amman, and inscribed it in 2011 on mixed natural and cultural criteria. A buffer zone of about 60,000 hectares surrounds it, and the land sits inside the Aqaba Special Economic Zone, which is why ASEZA is both a race sponsor and the local regulator.

Who Won the First Motorcycle Jordan Baja?

Jordan’s Ata Al-Hmoud won the 2018 motorcycle class on a Beta 390, the year the event ran as a candidate before the FIM cup seasons. Quads were not staged that year. Al-Balooshi’s sequence began in 2019 on a KTM 450 Rally and ran through 2025, except the two cancelled editions.

What Is the Junior Age Limit in the World Baja Cup?

An FIA Junior must be under 26 on January 1, 2026, and must not be listed as a Platinum or Gold driver. Master Cup drivers must be over 50 on that date, with the same grade bar. On the FIM bike grid in Aqaba, McInnes was the only Junior starter, won the prologue, and still led that class at the finish.