Enduro Rallye Weblog

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Die Dakar macht den Sprung über den grossen Teich – aber Afrika lockt trotzdem mit Dakar-feeling. Und Hubert Auriol bringt eine neue Rallye nach Dakar. Nachdem er bei der Heroes Legend seine Ideen offensichtlich nicht mit den anderen Beteiligten unter einen Hut bringen konnte trennten sich deren Wege and here she comes…

The first edition of AFRICA RACE®, the new African challenge created by Hubert AURIOL, three-time winner of the Paris-Dakar, will take place from the 26th December 2008 to the 11th January 2009. With the support of the relevant federations and the partnership of the African authorities, this international challenge will go back to the core values of traditional rally events.

Having started in a significant European city, the finish of the race will be judged in Dakar, the capital of Senegal, after several thousand kilometres journeyed across Morocco and Mauritania with a rest day taking place in Chinguetti. This adventure in the heart of Africa and the countries that have formed the legend of rally events will bring together both amateurs and professionals (motorbikes, quads, cars and trucks).

The fundamental aim of this new race is clear: to allow each competitor to experience a ‘personal’ adventure in a great international rally. A sporting challenge but at the same time a superb human adventure in the heart of a continent with a thousand faces.

" I’ve had the good fortune to have experienced 30 years of outstanding adventures in Africa. Answering the request of the African countries to organise AFRICA RACE®, is an opportunity for me to give back to them what Africa has given to me".

Eine tolle Geschichte, wenn ich nicht schon für die Argentinien Rallye angemeldet gewesen wäre durchaus einen Gedanken wert. Doch im Laufe der letzten Monate haben sich auch meine Träume verändert, die in Lissabon so plötzlich geplatzt waren.

The entry for bikes at the Tuareg-Rally 2008 is complete now. 152 Bikes are on the startinglist and you can see here who is riding from the 30.3. to the 7.4. with you to have a lot of fun. 
Again there will be a lot Italians, Netherlands and british competitors. Just 27 germans – so rallyelanguage will again be denglish Unfortunately Liz and Tamsin are not gonna ride.

At the moment the team is looking for nice new tracks at Maroc and I am pretty sure they will find some. 

The danish Enduro Championship is a very young race series. Because of the danish tax system it was for the younger people just possible to race the Motocross Races. There they could ride Bikes without numberplates what means without taking them on the tax. At the Enduro Races that wasn´t allowed. But two years ago they decided to do that on the Enduro as well because there were only old man racing and they wanted to have fresh blood into it.
This year there are 6 races, two of them belongs as well to the MX championship so there were much more competitors as at the normal Enduro Races. And of course because for example the Grand National at Viborg as well counts for the Swedish and Norwegian Championship.
But anyway, the Danish Races are so nice to take part of because of all the nice people and because they dont have this big bureaucracy.
Unfortunately they dont have a girls class because there are no danish girls riding Enduro. The few ones they have do MX. But I alredy demanded one for next year

I tried my new Yamaha WR 250F at the weekend and it was so much fun riding it. I just missed my rekluse clutch on it. I´m not used to ride with the normal clutch anymore and in the first lap I stopped the engine nearly 20 times because of that ;(
The track was a nice 10 km lap on a military area with deep sand, up- and downhills and a nice and narrow forest. More pictures you find here.
The fastest guy, Peter Weiss from Danmark overtook me a few times and I could always see how fast he was because it lasts nearly half a round before the next one came.
He leeds the competition and for sure he will win the whole one.
The last race will be at the 7th of october and I will be there as well. It will be close to the german border at Sogaard. On the 6th I will race the german championship at Tucheim and after that drive quick north. And of course for the danish organizers its not a problem when you show up.

Peter Weiss

Finally I recieved the letter I was waiting for:

Dear Competitor,
we are delighted to accept your application to take part in the Euromilhoes Dakar 2008.
We´re very pleased you´re going to be with us to experience the new adventure of the Dakar in the heart of Africa and thereby go down in legend. [...]
Etienne Lavigne, Dakar Director, ASO

It´s soo exciting!!! And I´m really curious about all other competitors. If all my friend got their enties as well and all my team-mates at the Yamaha Adventure Addicts Assistance Team. And, of course, about all the other girls racing the Dakar.

Countdown for the last few kilometers for all riders who are still race. More than 23 Teams, nearly 50 per cent, are disqualified. This rally is tougher than the rest and you get what you paid for
Our bad luck started at km 37 of the first day. The chain at liz´ bike went of and it took us 4 hrs to get rid of this problem. We had to loose the swingarm – but nobody had the tool for that in his bumbag.
But it was very nice to see how helpful every rider was. All guys said: Hey Girls, no problem, we´ll fix that for you. Then tried everything we tried already, and then give up with the words… sorry, we can´t help you. here you find a picture of the "little problem"

In the end we had a lot fun riding on the nice track, but we lost too much time to finish the day.

Now I have to go, the first riders will arrive at the finish and I want to take some nice pictures at the tricky obstical at the Monument.