Dubai International Baja set for 5 to 8 November, Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge to decide the 2026 W2RC titles from 22 November

The Emirates Motorsports Organization said on 22 October that the UAE will run three major events in a 31 day block, and two of them are pure desert racing. The Dubai International Baja runs from 5 to 8 November, the 35th Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge from 22 to 27 November, and the Formula 1 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix at Yas Marina from 4 to 6 December. Six international titles are settled inside that window. For anyone on this beat, the two desert rounds are the ones that matter.

Dubai goes first. The Baja is the final round of the FIA World Baja Cup and the FIA Middle East Baja Cup, with FIA Ultimate, Challenger, SSV and Stock cars plus bikes and quads on the entry. Scrutineering is on Thursday 5 November, the prologue and ceremonial start are at Dubai Festival City on Friday 6 November, and the competitive desert stages run at Al Qudra on 7 and 8 November. This is the tenth edition since the event moved to the Baja format in 2016.

Abu Dhabi decides the world championship

The Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge closes the 2026 FIA and FIM World Rally-Raid Championship. The W2RC said on 22 October that entries for the fifth and final round were two weeks from closing, so the entry list should firm up around the time you read this.

The cars are not settled. Seth Quintero leads the Ultimate standings on 135 points for Toyota Gazoo Racing W2RC, from Sebastien Loeb on 121 and Nasser Al-Attiyah on 115, both in Dacia Sandriders. Joao Ferreira is fourth on 86 and Henk Lategan fifth on 85. A single bad dune section or a broken driveshaft in the Rub' Al Khali flips that order.

On bikes, Daniel Sanders leads RallyGP on 87 points for Red Bull KTM Factory Racing, 13 clear of his team mate Luciano Benavides and Honda's Tosha Schareina, who are tied on 74. Ricky Brabec is still live on 70. Edgar Canet, who beat Sanders on the final stage of the Rallye du Maroc in early October, is fifth on 58.

What this means if you are watching from India

Both events are a short hop from most Indian metros, and the Dubai round is the easier one to attend. The prologue and ceremonial start sit inside the city at Festival City, which means you can see the cars, the bivouac discipline and the tyre choices without a desert permit or a support vehicle. The Al Qudra stages are on closed competition ground, so stay on the organiser's spectator points and do not follow tracks into the dunes on your own.

The harder truth is that India has no equivalent on the calendar right now. We checked Maruti Suzuki's own event pages and could not find a 2026 date for the Desert Storm, and India Baja has not reappeared on the international Baja calendar either. Until that changes, an Indian privateer who wants real sand rally-raid mileage is looking at a UAE or Saudi entry, a rented SSV seat or a navigator's job, not a home round.

If you want the Indian version of sand time this winter, it is the Rann of Kutch and the Jaisalmer area, and both come with rules. Kutch runs on an online permit system near the border, and Desert National Park has its own restrictions. Sand driving in India is a tourism activity with paperwork, not a race. Treat it that way.

Sources

• Emirates Motorsports Organization, latest news
• UAE to host six championship finales in landmark motorsport month
• Dubai International Baja 2026 brings world class rally racing to Al Qudra
• W2RC news
• Official W2RC rankings