Rallye du Maroc Open SSV winner Ali Oubassidi targets 2026 Dakar Rally

After a dominant outing at the Rallye du Maroc, Ali Oubassidi hopes to see if his achievements can translate to the Saudi deserts by making his Dakar Rally début in 2026. Should things go as planned, he would be taking part in the SSV category in his Can-Am Maverick X3.

Competing in the Open SSV class for Africa Rallye Team (a programme created by rally organisers to promote African rally raiders), Oubassidi won four of five stages and recorded a total time of 22:29:39, nearly two and a half hours faster than runner-up Marian Andreev. While he was far and away the top car in the class, it was far from smooth sailing as he and co-driver Hanane Amraoui had to deal with a plethora of mechanical issues.

A Merzouga native, Oubassidi is the first Moroccan to win the Rallye du Maroc in a four-wheel class. Fellow countryman Souleymane Addahri was also a class winner on a bike in Rally3.

“I am so happy to win the Open SSV category in this twenty-fifth edition of the prestigious Rallye du Maroc, which has a great history,” said Oubassidi. “It was not easy for me nor my co-driver. We crossed 2,468 kilometres, including 1,512 km of special stages, to reach Marrakech and Mengoub–Bouârfa via Zagora.
There were a lot of ups and downs throughout this run. The navigation was much more demanding than usual and much tighter.

“I remained focused until the last kilometre, determined not to rest on my laurels, and hamdulillah we were able to win the first Moroccan title in the rally raid.”

The Rallye du Maroc took place weeks after he finished twenty-second overall in the RallyClassics Africa, a historic rally in Morocco where he and Amraoui raced a Toyota Land Cruiser.

Outside of racing, Oubassidi is the head of Merzouga Desert, which organises tours of Merzouga in buggies, quads, and side-by-side vehicles, and the managing director of the Merzouga hotel Ksar Bicha. His hometown is located near the famous Erg Chebbi and a popular hotspot for cross-country rallies in Morocco; the 2023 Rallye du Maroc finished in Merzouga while the Baja Morocco in September had its main bivouac there.

Naturally, his familiarity with the region grants him firsthand knowledge of the terrain that contributed to success in his World Rally-Raid Championship début. The Dakar Rally is held in Saudi Arabia with a similar desert rally profile; for this reason, many competitors often use the Rallye du Maroc as a dress rehearsal for Dakar.

Article written in collaboration with Rally Raid Spirit