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Badawi Trail to the Last Osasis

HERO-ERA

28th March-9th April 2026


Badawi Trail to the Last Osasis 2026
Overall Winners: Richard Clark/Jonathan Round (Ford V8 Coupe)
Photograph: © HERO-ERA

Organiser: HERO-ERA

Date: 28th March-9th April 2026

Clerk of the Course: John Spiller

Route: 6,260 kms (13 Regs & 16 STC Sections)

Base: Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

Starters: 21


Donald Trump's war with Iran caused a major reconfiguration of the Badawi Trail. The original 20 day route was due to start at Jeddah and finish in Dubai, with a visit to Oman in between. With missiles falling in many areas of the Gulf, a new 13 day schedule, limited to western Saudi Arabia, was drawn up.

The first nine days would be as originally planned, with the final four days being set up as competitors assembled at the start venue. From Jeddah the rally would follow the Red Sea coast south to Abha, before heading back up to Medina and then to the historic oasis city of Al Ula, where there would be a non-driving day on Day Six. By Day Eight crews would be on the Gulf on Aqaba, then moving to the most easterly point of the route at Hail at the end of Day Nine. The last four days would be back in the Jeddah/Medina area. There would be 6,260 kilometres to traverse.

There two types of competitive sections: Regularities, timed to the second, and Sporting Time Control (STC) sections, over more demanding tracks, timed to the minute.

With a number of the original entry deciding not to make the journey to the Middle East, there were twenty-one crews on the starters list, although one of these, William Medcalf/Harry Medcalf (Bentley SuperSports) would only be joining the event on Day Seven.

It was therefore twenty cars that took the flag at the Jeddah Corniche Grand Prix Circuit; the entrants having a chance to drive around the track before heading off into the desert.

There was just one competitive section on Day One, that was an STC section near the coast. Five cars were on time at both time controls and so finished the day clean of penalties. As usual, only cars in Classes 1 to 3 - Pioneers, Vintage and Vintageant - were eligible for Overall Awards; Richard Clark/Jonathan Round (Ford V8 Coupe) were the only one of these that were clean, so had a clear overall lead.

It was not a successful day for everyone; the Bentley Justine of Jean-Pierre Swennen/Freddy Gevaert broke its gearbox and would go no further. The determined duo rejoined the fray in a hire car on Day Three.

Day Two was another 600 kilometre plus journey, ending in Taif. There were two regularities and an STC section to tackle. Deputy Clerk of Course Chris Elkins had to do some swift work when it was discovered that a Bedouin camp had be set up on the intended route for the STC. A new route was found and coordinates sorted for the Garmins that were being used by the competitors for navigation.

The Sporting Section created dramas for some crews; Alonso de Orleans-Bourbon/Alfonso de Orleans-Bourbon rolled their Toyota Land Cruiser and lost four minutes, while Harry Tayler/Andrew Thompson (Bentley 4½ Litre Le Mans), David Leblanc/Matthew Leblanc (Volvo 1800E) and Joao Penido/Pieck van Hoven (BMW 1602) all became stuck and accrued large penalties.

With controls timed to the second in the regs, the Day One ties were sorted on Day Two. Pearl of India winners, Clark/Round, dropped just one second over the day's three sections and arrived at Taif heading the leader board by 38 seconds. Kurt Deklerck/Patrick Debussere (Mercedes Benz 450SLC) were in second place, three seconds ahead of Arthur Monschein/Kai Wunderlich (Porsche 911T).

Badawi Trail to the Last Osasis 2026
Winners Classic Category: Xavier de Sarrau/Lucas de Sarrau (Ford Mustang)
Photograph: © HERO-ERA

Day Three was 631 kilometres and included two more STC sections, plus a regularity. Once again Clark/Round put in the best performance and finished the day with a lead of over a minute. De Orleans-Bourbon/de Orleans-Bourbon, making up for the previous day's indiscretion, equalled the leaders and dropped just three seconds over the day; this moved them up to fourth on the leader board.

Tomas de Vargas Machuca/Ben Cussons were competing in an Itala 35/40 and were the only entrants in the Pioneer Class. They hit an unseen speed bump at speed and this dislodged the radiator, causing a leak that was to lead to overheating problems for several days.

Day Four ran from Madinah, over the Sarawat Mountains, down to the Red Sea coast at Yanbu. It was a good day for Ford Mustangs with Xavier de Sarrau/Lucas de Sarrau putting in the best performance, dropping just 12 seconds, this moved them up to second place on the leader board, while Sandro Tanner/Susanna Luscher were now in fifth as they added only 14 seconds to their total penalties.

For the first four days Clark/Round had seemed invincible as they had built up a lead of 1m21s, having dropped just 20 seconds themselves. However, they hit problems at the start of the first of two Day Five STC sections, a clutch linkage broke and it took them almost an hour to fix the problem and get going again. Fortunately, as permitted, they had been running ahead of the scheduled time so were in no danger of going over their time limit at the following controls, this meant that their loss was limited to the maximum five minutes at the STC following their stoppage. They fell to fifth place in the day end standings, but, as those above them were all Classic cars, they retained their overall lead.

This meant that de Sarrau/de Sarrau now headed the leader board, 1m17s ahead of de Orleans-Bourbon/de Orleans-Bourbon, both these crews being amongst the four who had cleaned the whole day.

Leblanc/Leblanc were in terminal trouble on the second STC section, their sump guard was ripped off and the sump was pushed up into the engine. Three other cars broke down on the run in into Al Ula; Ned Bacon/Kat Bacon (Porsche 911 2.2S) were stopped by an ignition fault, while a burst clutch pipe halted the BMW 1602 of Penido/van Hoven. Meanwhile Michael Haentjes/Jacob Haentjes ran out of spare tyres for their Peugeot 504 after a number of punctures. All eventually made it to the resort where Day Six was a non-transit day

Badawi Trail to the Last Osasis 2026
Winners Pioneer Category: Tomas de Vargas Machuca/Ben Cussons (Itala 35/40)
Photograph: © HERO-ERA

Having climbed back into the mountains to the Al Ula Resort on Day Five, Day Seven saw another transit of the peaks back down to the Red Sea coast at Duba. There were two STC Sections and a reg to contest.

William Medcalf and his son Harry arrived at the Badawi Trail on the rest day and joined the competition. They had an uphill task as having missed the first five days they had accumulated the maximum daily penalty of two hours, giving a total of ten hours; the leaders were on 1m41s.

Clark/Round put in the best performance of the day, adding just five seconds to their total and this moved them up to third on the leader board. Second best were the leaders, de Sarrau/de Sarrau, who, at the end of Day Seven, held a two minute advantage over the field.

Alonso de Orleans-Bourbon had been replaced as the driver of Car 35 by Haikko Visser, who teamed up with Alfonso de Orleans-Bourbon, renewing their 2025 Peking to Paris partnership. They didn't have the best of days as they messed up the STC Section adding an unnecessary minute to their penalties, although they still maintained their second place.

The rest day at Al Ula had allowed Bo Staermose/Jens Odgaard Olsson to replace the head gasket on their Volvo 242, unfortunately on Day Seven they were forced out when a camshaft follower broke. They rejoined the rally on Day Eight in a hired truck.

The event reached its most northern point on the eighth day, following the coast up the Gulf of Aqaba, then turning to run parallel to the Jordanian border, before heading back to the south and the overnight halt at Tabuk.

A regularity and an STC Section were tackled, but it made little difference at the head of the leaderboard; only seconds were dropped by the leading runners. Clark/Round shared the honours for the least time lost with Deklerck/Debussere. Visser/de Orleans-Bourbon had an engine mounting break on their Land Cruiser, but lost no time as it happened after the competitive sections.

Badawi Trail to the Last Osasis 2026
Second Overall: Peter Fitzcharles/Deborah Fitzcharles (Chevrolet Fangio Coupe)
Photograph: © HERO-ERA

Day Nine was the last that used the originally planned route and it was the longest of the event at 760 kilometres from Tabuk to Hail in central Saudi Arabia. There were two STC Sections to contest.

All of the leading runners, bar Peter Fitzcharles/Deborah Fitzcharles (Chevrolet Fangio Coupe), were on time at both STCs on the first competitive section. Having dropped 30 seconds, Fitzcharles/Fitzcharles were now fifth place on the leader board, but second in the overall standings.

On the second STC section the Ford V8 Coupe of Clark/Round, as on Day Five, broke its clutch linkage. This occurred at the first of the two Time Controls; they made that on time, but lost over an hour fixing the problem. Fortunately, once again, they had been running well ahead of their scheduled time, as they were allowed to do, and so avoided a 30 minute penalty for being over their time limit at the second TC, however they did receive the five minute maximum penalty at the control.

The Ford V8 dropped one place on the leader board, but retained their overall lead, although they were now only two and a half minutes ahead of Fitzcharles/Fitzcharles.

The three leading crews, de Sarrau/de Sarrau, Visser/de Orleans-Bourbon and Yang Zhan/Jason Zhe Ren (Toyota Land Cruiser), all cleaned both STC challenges and were still each separated by roughly two minutes.

For the final four days the route was a newly formed one that had been put together when using the eastern half of the Gulf States was considered too risky.

There weren't any major changes on the leader board on Day Ten, but then on Day Eleven Deklerck/Debussere passed Fitzcharles/Fitzcharles for fifth place after the latter crew went astray on the second STC Section of the day and were a minute late at the following control.

Over the next two days the positions remained unaltered, except for, once again, Fitzcharles/Fitzcharles went wrong on the final regularity of the event and picked up a maximum one minute timing point penalty. This dropped them another place on the lead board, although they were in no danger of losing their second overall position as all the cars around them were in the Classic Category.

Richard Clark/Jonathan Round maintained their pace over the last few days and ended the rally in fourth place on the leader board, but, more importantly, first overall, being the first vintage car home. There is little doubt but for their two gear linkage problems, which cost them a total of ten minutes, they would have been at the head of leader board as well, having cleaned all of the sixteen STC Section. They were also best over the thirteen regularities, being 54 seconds better than any other crew.

At the top of the chart was the Ford Mustang of Xavier de Sarrau/Lucas de Sarrau; they had taken the lead on Day Five and finished with a victory margin of 1m27s over Haikko Visser/Alfonso de Orleans-Borbon. Yang Zhan/Jason Zhe Ren put in the best performance over the last few days and came home in third.


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