Prodrive enters joint venture with Bahrain to enter Dakar in 2021

5 February 2020

UK motorsport engineering company Prodrive has entered into a new joint venture with the talakat Holding Company (Mumtalakat), the sovereign wealth fund of the Kingdom of Bahrain. The new company, Prodrive International has been established with the aim of designing and manufacturing cars to compete in the in the top level T1 class of the Dakar Rally in Saudi Arabia from 2021.

Two rally cars will be manufactured and operated annually by Prodrive International which will also produce other customer cars and offer a range of performance parts and body kits as accessories for clients.

Bahrain sponsored the winning car in this year’s inaugural Dakar Rally in the Middle East, which opened in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia and concluded in the country’s capital, Riyadh.

Commenting on the partnership, HE Khalid Al Rumaihi, Mumtalakat CEO, said, “Prodrive has participated in numerous regional and international motorsport events throughout its 30+ years of operation, winning six FIA World Rally Championships, five Le Mans titles and seven Middle East Rally Championships. 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.”

“It has been a long-held ambition of mine and Prodrive to compete in the Dakar Rally,” said David Richards, Prodrive founder and CEO. “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. Dakar is a new and challenging project for Prodrive, but one that I and the whole team in Banbury are relishing.”

Jonny Bourne OBE, Prodrive International’s interim CEO, explained, “As well as aiming to be competitive and innovative at the Dakar Rally in its fabulous new Middle Eastern setting, this joint venture also presents the opportunity to introduce to the Kingdom of Bahrain further high technology industries, which create employment, enhance local expertise and raise the profile of Bahrain as a centre of technological excellence in the Arabian Gulf.”