24 Hours of Morocco

[DarrenSkilton]

Just a heads up to African Rally fans. I just arrived in Morocco and will be driving a Protruck in the inaugural 24 Hours of Morocco off road race. My good friend and successful race driver Georges Lansac invited me to this exciting event to co drive with him in his Protruck. The race will consist of four days of racing. Each day we will have a 6 hour enduro around a 20-25 mile loop. We will be racing Marrakech, Erfoud, Zagora and Ouarzazate. Really looking forward to it, Morocco is a beautiful and fascinating place. It is good to be back racing here. First time since 2005.

Race begins on the 24th of May. You can follow online at http://www.tt24.fr/24H-ORM-La-Course...rect_a498.html

I will try to update with photos when I can.

Darren

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[07FJRog]

good luck.

6 hours on a 25 mile loop, boy that is gonna get rough real fast

[Dirty Harry]

Sounds awesome Darren! Thanks for the link, I will be following the race.

[Robert Ollivier]

Hi,
Hi
the first race is over:
1st Eric Vigouroux (Protruck)
2nd Georges Lansac & Darren Skilton (Protruck)
3rd Thierry Charbonnier (Predator)

next race on wenesday.

[Robert Ollivier]

Sorry, i've done some mistakes,

1st: E.Vigouroux - Willocq (Trophytruck)
2nd: Lacam-Caze (Caze-Suzuki)
3rd: Lansac-Skilton-Davoy (Protruck)
4th: Charbonnier (Predator X18)
5th: Clerget (Predator)

[DarrenSkilton]

Tonight we arrived in the desert oasis town of Erfoud after a long 520 Km drive from Marrakech. Amazing scenery as we crossed the Atlas mountains and dropped into Ouarzazate.

The first 6 hours in Marrakech was run over a tight and twisty 37 Km track. We knew Eric would have the fastest car here so we just wanted to run clean. I am sharing the drive with Georges Lansac and Jean Marie Davoy, both former winners of the 24 Hour of Paris off road race. Georges ran the first 2 hours and was running consistent laps in second place about 3 minutes behind Eric. He put in four laps and stopped for the first of two mandetory 5 minute pits about 14 minutes behind first place. I jumped in the co dog seat with Jean Marie for the second two hours to get see the course and see how the truck handled.

It is a modified Protruck, with King shocks and different brakes and I had never even sat in the truck, let alone tested it, so I thought it would be a good idea to get a feel for it. Right of the bat we lost the intercom and I was not able to give JM directions from the roadbook. We lost a little time finding the road we wanted but soon settled in to running a decent pace.

After 3 laps we pitted again and I jumped in the drivers seat. We lost 5 minutes on the first lap due the course being blocked by a line of 6 cars stuck in a ravine. Ran a clean second lap only to have to stop on the third lap for 20 minutes for a radiator leak. While passing a buggy we took a rock in the radiator and it caused two small leaks. Got if fixed but lost a spot and we were not able to start another lap within the 6 hour limit.

The team is happy and are a great bunch of guys. We are looking forward to tomorrow. We will have some sand, little dunes and some fast wide open desert all crammed into 19 Km laps. I will be doing the second two hour stint. Hopefully we can move back into second with a clean run. Eric is running his 7/8 scale V drive Trophy Truck and is a little more than the Protruck can handle in the heads up race. But it is three more days so anything can happen.

[DarrenSkilton]

Pictures of the second Protruck team of Bernard Antequiel.

French version of a JeepSpeed, driven by an all ladies team.

Our hotel tonight, Kasbah Xaluca, complete with a poolside camel that will drink your beer from the bottle if you put it in front of him! I will try to get a photo of that tomorrow. The race starts 800 meters from the hotel which we are all very happy about.

[spalind]

Pictures of the second Protruck team of Bernard Antequiel.

French version of a JeepSpeed, driven by an all ladies team.

Our hotel tonight, Kasbah Xaluca, complete with a poolside camel that will drink your beer from the bottle if you put it in front of him! I will try to get a photo of that tomorrow. The race starts 800 meters from the hotel which we are all very happy about.

An all women's team throwing the #69 on the side?? Now THOSE ladies I'd like to meet!

[partybarge_pilot]

A beer drinking camel? That could get expensive..........

[wessen]

be very carefull on km 16 on the track of today...
there's a huge drop-off there should be 3 or more !!!!!!!!!! on the side of the roadbook.

your gonna drive on an old DAKAR track...