“Our goal is to capture the first ever Saudi title”
CREW FACTS…
S.A.S.
- “Captain Saleh” as he is known has had quite an impressive run on the Dakar. For his debut in 2020, he captured 12th position overall and went on to clinch a first stage win a year later.
- The driver from Ha’il has become a reference on the Saudi off-road scene and has these last two years been the most consistent representative of his nation finishing twice 6th of the Challenger class. With Yazeed Al Rajhi and Yasir Seaidan, he is also the only Saudi to have won stages on the Dakar, the last one being back in January 2024.
- For his sixth Dakar, the 47-year-old will be joined in the cockpit of his G-Rally OT3 by a new codriver in Albert Veliamovic. After winning yet another Saudi cross-country championship title in the Challenger class, Al Saif aims at the Dakar title.
A.V.
- The love of Albert Veliamovic for the Dakar goes way back. It started while watching the highlights of the race on TV and being astonished at seeing trucks overtake bikes and cars on the long straights of Africa. But after watching it on TV, he just had to see the real thing. He therefore flew to Peru in 2019 to follow the race as a tourist.
- The next step was actually taking part in the rally. After considering doing it on a bike, he realized it would be too tough and focused on becoming a co-driver.
- It therefore won’t be Albert Veliamovic’s first discovery of the Dakar but it will be the first time he appears in a far smaller machine. In 2024, the Lithuanian was onboard a truck and had a first taste of the event as a navigator for compatriot Vaidotas Paskevicius. Sadly, their adventure stopped as soon as day 6 when the engine of their old truck broke down for good.
- On that sad day, Albert and his crew were stranded with no internet or phone signal. They had to walk 28kms during seven hours before eventually finding help. And while walking through the desert he knew that he had to come back to the Dakar to get that finishing medal to bring back to his son.
- The 36-year-old will not only be given that opportunity in 2025, he’ll also be in the cockpit of one of the best driver’s in the Challenger class: Saudi Arabia’s Saleh Al Saif. After competing in the Saudi cross-country championship with various drivers, Veliamovic has a fairly big amount of pressure on his shoulders but what an amazing challenge it will be.
AMBITION 2025
S.A.S.: “I’m very happy to announce I’ll be participating in Dakar 2025 with Albert Viliamovic of Lithuania as my co-driver. We will have number 306 which symbolises my results in 2024 and 2023 when I finished both times sixth. Our goal now is to battle with our opponents and capture the first ever Saudi title in the Challenger class.”
A.V.: “I watched the Dakar on TV for a couple of years and then I thought: "I have to see the Dakar for myself". The only option I had was to be a co-driver or to ride a motorbike. I bought a bike and started racing but I soon realized that riding a motorcycle takes a lot of time and I didn’t have the time or the energy for it. So the only option left was to become a co-driver. So, for my first Dakar as a competitor, I started in the truck category. We drove a very old 2011 truck. It was probably the oldest truck in the race. Unfortunately, our engine died. It happened towards the end of the day in dunes as it was getting dark. We couldn’t get it started and had to decide whether to sleep under or in the truck and wait for help in the morning or walk across the desert. We saw a small flickering light in the distance. I said, "Let’s go towards that light because it means there is some kind of civilisation, maybe a petrol station, a small town or a good road”. So we walked. We walked for 7 hours, covering 28 kilometres, and arrived around 2am. We reached the road where mechanics met us and took us to a hotel. I wondered why we were so unlucky, because we had a good team, the driver was fast and I didn’t make any navigation mistakes, but we still couldn’t finish the Dakar at our first attempt. At that moment I decided that I had to come back to Dakar to get the finish medal that I wanted to take home and give to my son.”
