2025 Saudi Baja — Hail: Dune Challenge and First Points in FIA World Baja Cup
On Saturday, February 1, the 2025 Saudi Baja — Hail, the first round of the FIA World Baja Cup and the first round of the FIA Middle East Baja Cup, ended in Saudi Arabia. Russian crews made their debut in the T3 lightweight prototype category for rally-raids (Challenger in the FIA classification), mastering the Taurus T3 Max from the Nasser Racing Team.
For Sergei Remennik, this is the third start on the FIA World Baja Cup tracks, and his co-driver Alexei Ignatov helps him to master the raid intricacies step by step. The second Russian crew of Alexei Shmotev and Yaroslav Fedorov also took their first steps. For Fedorov, this baja became a real test of his ability to adapt to challenging conditions.
Prologue: Play Without Being Cautious
Sergei Remennik set himself the task of not only finishing, but also learning at each stage. Therefore, the Baja Prologue was supposed to be a kind of reconnaissance, but everything changed at the last moment. The secret of success is not only in training, but also in the advice of the top driver. The legendary Nasser Al-Attiyah is not only the face of his team, but also closely monitors the results of the crews and gives valuable recommendations.
Sergei Remennik, No. 309, “At first, we didn’t want to rush, so as not to get into the top ten and not to choose the starting position. But Nasser (Al-Attiyah) said, “If you want to play, then play. The gas pedal is on the right, so go ahead and accelerate. We decided to go as we go.”
It turned out well: fifth place overall and third in the T3 (Challenger) category. However, the first kilometers of the sandy distance also showed that Remennik needs to learn to read the terrain and choose the road independently, and not rely on the co-driver’s commands, as he is used to doing in classic rallies.
Alexei Shmotev, in turn, preferred a more cautious approach to the Prologue, so as not to take risks, but in the future to ensure a strategically advantageous starting position for himself, so that on Friday the tracks of the crews that started before him would be helpful to the co-driver, who is just learning the intricacies of raid orientation.
Alexei Shmotev, driver, No. 308, “Yaroslav and I decided to drive carefully, without unnecessary risks. The Prologue is short, but it immediately becomes clear what attitude each person brings to the track. We saw that even over a short distance it’s possible to lose a lot or, on the contrary, win due to accurate decisions.”
Sands, Speed and First Conclusions
The first full baja day included a 260-kilometer-long selective section, divided into two stretches with a neutralization and refueling zone. The total distance of the stage was 442 kilometers. The morning cold added to the difficulties: before the sun rose, the crews were pretty chilled.
Remennik and Ignatov started fifth; Shmotev and Fedorov started 15th. The baja route covered a variety of landscapes, including the vast Al Nafud Al Kabir desert, known for its high sand dunes, challenging tracks and impressive scenery. The track mainly consisted of sand roads, where fast sections alternated with stretches with bumpy camel grass, and the second half of the selective section passed in dune terrain.
For Remennik, the fight was complicated not only by tricky navigation, but also by the lack of skills required for driving in the desert. At the first stage finish, he achieved the fourth result in the T3 category among all those who started the 2025 Saudi Baja — Hail and the first in the FIA World Baja Cup standings.
Sergei Remennik, No. 309, “Just in case, we turned on the limiter so as not to get a penalty for speeding, because in many places we reached the maximum. We revealed the capabilities of this car step by step — we gradually picked up speed. It was especially telling when guys on the same car overtook us. When they caught up with us, we just looked at how Khalifa (Al-Attiya) and Saleh (Alsaif) were driving. So, we were able to increase our pace, which is visible from the waypoints during the day. We are very happy — the car is intact, nothing was bent. The car is fantastic! It’s a pleasure to drive a vehicle like this.
Shmotev and Fedorov finished the day without navigation mistakes achieving the sixth result in the T3 category (and second in the World Cup standings), validated all the waypoints, but received a 10-second penalty for speeding on a restricted section.
Alexei Shmotev, No. 308, “We finished the selective section without any breakdowns and didn’t get lost even once! I have to say a big thank you to Yaroslav, because this is his first full rally-raid. And indeed, as they said, the first 62 kilometers were such tricky in terms of navigation, but he coped with everything!”
Fedorov, making his debut in sand rally-raids, confirmed the importance of interaction in the crew.
Yaroslav Fedorov, co-driver, No. 308, “We are both in the process of learning: I’m learning navigation, he is learning driving. If you look at the intermediate points, even during this selective section our pace increased. If we talk about movement, the driver is going excellently in the hors-piste, and, in general, I just give him the direction, he follows it quite clearly. In addition, there were tracks, which we skillfully used in places.
I would like to note that we managed to establish a dialogue with the driver right away. I think this is important, considering that for several hours we must be in contact, on which the result depends. We immediately established good communication, which allowed us to achieve a good result for our debut joint start.”
Finish and Plans for Future
The Saturday stage saw another 160 competitive kilometers. The crews passed through familiar tracks from a new angle and again without technical problems. The road conditions were no different from those that the baja competitors had encountered in the first days: they tackled sand, desert and small dunes again.
Although small losses of time when searching for points affected the results, both Russian crews successfully completed the day. Sergei Remennik and Alexei Ignatov turned around a couple of times to validate a point and lost about five minutes. Alexei Shmotev and Yaroslav Fedorov validated one of the points in the first half of the selective section right away, but the primary navigation device did not display the necessary animation, for this reason the crew turned around to drive through these coordinates again and confidently validate the point. Looking ahead: ERTF technicians confirmed that the point was validated on the first try, they do not know why the device did not work correctly. And all this would not have helped to neutralize the time wasted on the repeat ride.
Nevertheless, both Ural crews successfully completed the 2025 Saudi Baja — Hail, receiving their first points in the FIA World Baja Cup. The crew of Sergei Remennik and Alexei Ignatov became the winner of the first stage of the FIA World Baja Cup in the Challenger (T3) category, and the crew of Alexei Shmotev and Yaroslav Fedorov took third place in this category.
Sergei Remennik, No. 309, “I’m very happy to be at the finish line and thankful to my family for letting me go to the motorsport competitions! In general, the tasks that we set for ourselves are even exceeded and it is clear what needs to be worked on. When local fast guys overtake me, it is not difficult for me to hold on to them, practically steering with one hand. But so far, I cannot go so fast on my own — I don’t have the skills to instantly read the terrain, understand where I can add gas, and where I should be more careful.
Nasser Al-Attiyah, I think, is happy with the team results: more than half of the crews either successfully finished in the Middle East or in the World Cup. This cannot but please him. We are making plans for how we move forward, because we are considering cooperation for the entire 2025 World Cup season.”
Alexei Shmotev, driver, No. 308, “In general, we have driven very well today, we’ve picked up a good pace and overtook several crews. But unfortunately, the device didn’t record a point validation once — we lost five minutes and, accordingly, slid down a little in the classification. The baja was cool, interesting, the car is just great, my co-driver showed himself well overall! So, we will continue and hope for a good result.”
Shmotev’s co-driver, sharing the baja results, noted the difficulty of preparation.
Yaroslav Fedorov, “I’ve wanted to try to participate in raids for a long time, but a lot of things had to coincide here. Unlike the classic rallies, where it’s clear how you can practice reading the notes, here there was no opportunity to arrange any tests to practice navigation. Therefore, the most I could do before this baja was to prepare for it. That is, I learned all the lexicon icons, watched the videos that exist, read all the instructions for using the NAV-GPS devices, competition regulations, and so on. And this lack of opportunity to practice meant that the only way to get into this discipline is a driver who takes risks, understanding that he will be riding with an inexperienced person who must adapt very quickly.”
For both Remennik and Fedorov, this is only the beginning of their journey in rally-raids, but they are already making confident progress.
Sergei Remennik, No. 309, “Hello, hello! The day consisted mainly of a sand track. There was an open terrain with a lot of fast sections. In the middle of the selective section there was greenery like camel grass. The second part went more along the dunes or dunettes, there was a little bit of everything mixed up. And just in case, we turned on the limiter so as not to get a penalty for speeding, because in many places we reached the maximum.
Alexei Shmotev, No. 308, “We finished the selective section without any breakdowns and didn’t get lost even once! I have to say a big thank you to Yaroslav, because this is his first full-fledged rally-raid. And indeed, as they said, the first 62 kilometers were such tricky navigation, but he coped with everything, that is, he has no mistakes at this selective section!
Following the conclusion of the Dakar Rally in Shubaytah, many teams opted to transport their vehicles to Hail, located in the northern region of Saudi Arabia. Consequently, the competition, organized by the Saudi Arabian Motorsports Federation (SAMF), attracted a high-quality lineup of competitors: 35 crews, including nine in the Ultimate category (T1+), 10 in the Challenger (T3.1), 11 in the SSV category (T4), and five in the T2 production car category.
Sergei Remennik has already tried himself in rally-raids in recent years and achieved good results. In 2022, he debuted in this discipline, winning the Russia Northern Forest Baja in the T4 category. In 2023, he switched to the sandy tracks of the UAE and took third place in the national standings of the Dubai International Baja.
Saudi Arabia is known for its unpredictable track conditions. In addition to the difficult terrain, the main problem in a car without a windshield in the desert can be… the cold:
Before the start of the Sunday special stages the crew of Remennik and Fedorov lost to the duet of Nifontova and her co-driver Ekaterina Zhadanova for only eight seconds. Agree, it was a shame not to try to compete with them for the first place in the T3 standings of the Russian Championship.
Sergei Remennik, driver,“We are at the finish line – the goal has been achieved! That’s what we did, it was cool. I can say that I enjoyed driving the long stages and I think we will continue. These were the first cross-country rallies in my life. Yaroslav and I have so far driven the longest special stages, probably only in Finland – there is a special stage “Ouninpohja”, about 30 kilometers. Yaroslav has experience in Corsica, where the special stages are 50 kilometers long. But there has never been such an experience of 120 kilometers until now, now there is. It is very interesting from the point of view of how to prepare yourself, to count your strength for such a distance. I understand that this is not the longest distance, as in multi-day marathons. Experienced racers say that at the Baja Russia Northern Forest the advantage is on the side of the classic rally drivers and I agree with them. I only missed the usual notes, because in some places it was possible to push hard from jumps to closed corners. Because you leave the corner and you understand that you could put pressure on the gas to the last there. But, as my senior comrades told me, the cross-country rallies principle is: “if you don’t see, you don’t drive”. Well, I tried not to drive if I didn’t see it”.
Yaroslav Fedorov, co-driver,“It was very unusual for me here, as if I were a useless element. I kept silence a lot here, I have never been so silent at the special stages. There was even an opportunity to chat during the day at Baja, so it seems to me that I underperformed. But we are at the finish line – this is the most important thing and a very cool experience. I liked today, because the special stages were more like roads in our classic sense. And if at the first passage we were turned around twice, now we had an absolutely clean passage. We are waiting for the official results; something tells me that we did a good job”.
Sergei Remennik, driver, “Everything that happens with Yaroslav and me this weekend is marked as “surprise”. We are surprised by everything that happens around us. It is indeed a very interesting experience, an interesting adventure. But let’s draw conclusions in a more relaxed atmosphere when we get to the finish line. Our task is to finish this race. But what is happening with the track surface… makes the finish seem more and more illusive to us! 
I’m really surprised about Anastasia Nifontova! It’s a very pleasant feeling, an incredible surprise, because I saw girls who ride next to me in a kart – they go fast and can be faster than me. But in a rally?! Anastasia is the first person who outraces me. And I’m impressed. 
And now let us talk about the most important thing – the results. According to preliminary calculations, Sergei Remennik and Yaroslav Fedorov finished the day in the fifth place of the baja overall standings (02:09 min behind the day leader) and the second in the T4 standings of the FIA World Cup for Cross-Country Bajas round. The first day leader is the crew of Tomasz Bialkowski, followed by Vladimir Vasilyev, Anastasia Nifontova, Sergey Uspensky in the order of finish.
