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University students from across the kingdom aided in designing parts of Bahrain Raid Xtreme’s (BRX) mighty Hunters that will be competing in the tough Dakar Rally race.
BRX, a partnership between Bahrain Mumtalakat Holding Company, the sovereign wealth fund of Bahrain, and Prodrive, provided internships for six students from different universities to help build new Hunter chassis for this year’s two remaining World Rally-Raid Championship (WRRC) rounds in Morocco and Spain in October.
They were involved in design, construction and everyday operations with the BRX Hunter car driven by legendary rally star and WRRC leader, Sebastien Loeb, in the heart of the UK’s multi-billion ‘motorsport valley’.
“We were delighted to offer these Bahraini engineering students the opportunity to have an insight into all the technology behind the Bahrain Raid Xtreme team,” said Prodrive chairman David Richards.
“They were able to learn how we design, manufacture and run the BRX Hunter on the world’s toughest motorsport event, the Dakar. We have also confirmed that, when they finish their studies at university, we will consider those who are interested for a full time role within the team.”
Fares Alqutami, a third year student at the American University of Bahrain, modified a cover that’s part of the engine to be used on the Hunter in the Dakar, while Fareed Abusaqer, a mechanical engineer from Bahrain Polytechnic University, designed a hand brake for the Hunter hypercar.
“I want to do this as a career, and want to follow this high level prototype engineering through,” said Abusaqer.
The other Bahraini students involved included Hasan Alasfoor and Mohamed Nader from the University of Bahrain, Salman Ahmed from the American University of Bahrain and Jasim Althawadi, who studies at Bahrain Polytechnic University.
The Hunter was designed by Prodrive to win Dakar for BRX. Prodrive has so far notched six FIA World Rally titles, six Le Mans 24 Hours titles, nine FIA World Sports Car titles and five British Touring Car titles.
BRX currently leads the inaugural WRRC, and has its sights on an historic first Dakar Rally victory in Saudi Arabia in January.
There will be a new itinerary for the fourth edition, which will be held from December 31 to January 15, 2023, and first round of the FIA-FIM World Rally-Raid Championship.
The route will take rally racers from the beaches of the Red Sea to the sands of the Arabian Gulf in Dammam. This crossing of the country will be, in fact, a complete tour as the 14 stages will first lead the Dakar to the north-western mountain regions before heading to the deep southeast for a three-day journey through ocean of dunes in the Empty Quarter.
For details, follow @dakarrally and @braidxtreme on Instagram.
