Yazeed Al-Rajhi contested in many international rallies around the region and the world. (Photo supplied) Updated 12 sec ago Arab News July 29, 2018 22:09 35 Yazeed Al-Rajhi is a Saudi rally driver. He began his driving career in 2007 and participated in cross-country rallies in the Middle East. Al-Rajhi, partnered by Germany’s Timo Gottschalk in a Mini Cooper, became the first Saudi and Arab professional driver to win the Silk Way Rally 2018, which took place in Russia between July 21 and 27. The 6,700-miles Moscow-Beijing Silk Way Rally passes through the Gobi Desert. More than 100 competitors took part in the 16-day motor rally that took them to the forests of Russia, grasslands of Kazakhstan and the towering sand dunes of China. Al-Rajhi contested in many international rallies around the region and the world. In 2008, he made his World Rally Championship debut on the 2008 Rally Argentina in a Subaru Impreza WRX STI. However, he retired from that event and the 2008 Jordan Rally. He won two rounds of the Middle East Rally Championship in a Peugeot 207 S2000 in both 2009 and 2010, accompanied by French co-driver Matthieu Baumel. Al-Rajhi scored his first World Rally Championship (WRC) points with an eighth-place finish on the 2012 Acropolis Rally, the sixth round of 2012 FIA World Rally Championship that took place in Greece. In 2011, he contested seven World Rally Championship rounds but retired from six of them. He also competed in the International Rally Challenge round in Corsica of 2011, finishing 14th. Al-Rajhi was born in 1981 in Riyadh. In addition to his driving career, he is also a successful businessman and serves as chairman of Mohammed Al-Rajhi Investment Co., and Yazeed Al-Rajhi and Brothers Co. He is also a member of Al-Rajhi Steel Board, Mohammad Al-Rajhi Awqaf, and board member of other companies. Al-Rajhi is the first Saudi to be selected in 2008 by the UNICEF as a goodwill ambassador in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf. He is also the first Saudi to be appointed as a “Donate Life” ambassador in 2009.