“You go to other planets when you come to the rallies”

After several years competing in cars, Yasir Seaidan has now established himself in the T4 class in a very competitive Can Am prepared by South Racing. The Saudi has indeed lived quite a few different experiences since his first Dakar back in 2014 when the race was far from his homeland. Born in Riyadh, he would, as a child, spend most of his free time playing football or enjoying family weekends in the desert riding a quad. And that of course led to racing. Close to becoming a professional footballer he decided to focus on racing at the age of 21. And slowly switched from quads to cars. After winning the SSV FIA World Cup in 2013, he witnessed his first Dakar in 2014 behind the wheel of a Polaris. Sadly the first adventure of the now 46-year-old ended as soon as stage 5. After driving a RZR 900 through the deserts of South America, Seaidan returned to the Dakar in a completely different vehicle, a Toyota VDJ200 that he managed to take to 39th spot overall, finishing 3rd of the T2 class. The Dakar switch to Saudi Arabia gave this father of five (4 boys and one girl) new ambitions as he reappeared four years later in a Mini All4Racing prepared by the X-Raid team. Alongside Aleksei Kuzmich, Seaidan managed to sneak into the Top 10, a fine 9th spot. After learning from the best (Sainz, Peterhansel), the businessman in real estate decided to try a new experience within the SRT Racing Team in a Century CR6 buggy. Despite finishing three stages in the top 10 (including 4th spot on day 3), Seaidan had to settle for a disappointing 39th position overall at the finish in Jeddah. After this short experience, the Saudi driver returned to a good old Mini JCW Racing but he’ll want to forget about that Dakar that ended on day 7. For his sixth participation, Seaidan returned to the T4 class finishing 23rd. he’ll have far bigger ambitions for 2024 especially with a few top guns switching to T3. At his side, Seaidan has decided to pair up with Frenchman Adrien Metge. After five Dakar rallies on a bike including two finishes in the Top 15, Metge moved to the co-driver’s seat last year helping Santiago Navarro to capture an excellent 9th position on the last Dakar. The 37-year-old hasn’t totally given up on two-wheels, he even won the Rally Dos Sertoes in Brazil back in August. His navigational skills will be precious for his new Saudi driver.

Y.S.: “I come from a real estate family. It’s not easy to be a professional driver and a businessman at the same time. Sometimes I become a rally driver at 100% but during the year I focus on rallying at 20%. As a child I never dreamt of being a professional rally driver. I just did it for fun. I loved driving in the deserts and the dunes. In the winter we would go camping in the desert and stay for two weeks. I was driving for fun but I got more experience and one of my friends asked me: why don’t we go and race? We didn’t have a federation in Saudi then so I would go to Kuwait, Qatar or the Emirates to compete there. Until 2012 there were no races for bikes so I decided to change for cars. I actually started in a SSV on a local race in Saudi and then did the FIA World Cup winning the first T3 class title.
When I come to rallies, I feel I’m alive. There’s the excitement. I love the community. You go to other planets when you come to the rallies. You see people who love the sport like you do. It changes my mood. It takes me away from business. When I go back to work I feel fresh. The feeling in the car is hard to explain. It’s super exciting. You have to be focused all the time. You have to find a balance between pushing and being patient. The difference between the results of the drivers is the mistakes. The fewer mistakes you do the better the result.”


A.M.: “The last Dakar was a great experience as a co-driver on four wheels alongside Santi Navarro. It was a long Dakar with tough weather conditions and some specials that we finished at night after repairing the car. But I was happy with our Dakar and our 9th position. We managed to get out of some tricky situations.”