With The Help Of Bahrain, Prodrive To Enter 2021 Dakar Rally With New Rally Raid Car

British motorsport firm and six-time WRC champion Prodrive is heading to Dakar with its own rally raid car in 2021.

Prodrive has established a new joint venture with Bahrain’s sovereign wealth fund, with the company called Prodrive International. The aim is to design and build race cars ready to compete in the Rally Dakar that will take place in Saudi Arabia in 2021.

The upcoming rally raid car will compete in the top level T1 Class, with two vehicles operated from them -and Bahrain- directly, as well as selling customer examples to other teams, complete with a range of parts and body kits.

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“We’re very proud of the Rally’s move to the region and in partnering with Prodrive, we expand Bahrain’s significant motorsport heritage, having established the Bahrain International Circuit to host Formula One in the Middle East for the first time in 2004,” said Khalid Al-Rumaihi, CEO of the Bahrain Mumtalakat Holding Company.

“It has been a long-held ambition of mine and Prodrive to compete in the Dakar Rally,” added David Richards, founder and Chairman of Prodrive. “To be able to do so with the Kingdom of Bahrain’s sovereign wealth fund, Mumtalakat, and in Saudi Arabia, makes the prospect even more special as the Middle East is where Prodrive started its motorsport journey in 1984.”

The news was accompanied by an official render of a rally raid car but the final design of Prodrive’s Dakar machine is expected to be revealed on a later date.