Africa Eco-race 2018 (the race to Dakar)

2018 is the 10th Anniversary Africa Eco-race.
AFRICA ECO RACE
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De Rooy, Minis, Serradori and Toyotas, Pal Anders and Sella's younger brother on the m/cs..
Africa Eco-Race primer

 

Bull dust, help me out here because I am not that familiar with this. So this race competes with the Dakar race that is now held in South America? What is the relationship between this race and that one?

 

After dakar moved to South America due to safety woes some people felt the spirit of the "real Dakar" that Thierry Sabine invented was gone. Jean Louis Schlesser who drove 2WD buggies at Dakar invented the EcoRace. It somehow has a humanitarian stance officially - helping communities etc. But basically another race in the desert where you pay to enter. It follows original Dakar route somehow. Especially the finish at the Rose Lak/ Lac Rose...

 

I have a question...if the Dakar was cancelled in 08 what year did the Eco Race start? And unless it started in 08, how can this be the 10th Anniversary? I am not trying to split hairs here, just trying to get a timeline of when it all.

I wish this race got the publicity that Dakar gets.

 

I believe it started before Dakar Rally moved, as an alternative cheaper event. If it became as popular as Dakar, it would probably also have to move because the terrorists in that region would then see it as a big media target and threaten it.

 

Thanks for the explanation. Interesting how they run this one at about the same time as the Dakar. Kinda like trying to start another big desert race and doing it the same time as the Baja 1000. Seems odd to me.

 

That is the point. It is an FU to the ASO. Imagine if they moved the Baja 1000 to Canada. It’s not hard to imagine that someone would come up with a replacement at the original location.

 

Yea, got it. Thanks

 

Wendell #527
Some more info on the AER..
It started off being called the Africa Race founded by Rene Metge and Herbert Auriol. Both Metge and Auriol are very successful competitors in motorsport especially in Rally Raids. Metge has won the Dakar 3 times, he won the Dakar in the Factory built Rothmans Porsche 911s back in the eighties and has won other classes in the Dakar as well. He knows N/Africa like the back of his hand so to speak. Auriol has also won the Dakar on bikes ( twice ) and then switched to cars as a Mitsubishi works driver but moved to Citroen again as a works driver and won the rally. This was in late eighties early nineties. He then became race director for the ASO from 95 to 2004. Again he knows his stuff.
The Africa Race tired to get going in 2008. In 2009 the ASO put a court ruling on the organizers as the ASO still held the Rights for the Dakar rally in N/Africa. In 2010 the rally was a go due to the ASO moving to S/A but with a small entry I think there was only 3 bikes and maybe 15 to 20 cars and trucks. Jean Louis Schlesser (aka "The Desert Fox" ) also a winner of the Dakar and many other International rallies won the Africa Race I think 5 times in a row with his buggy and retired from racing. Auriol stepped out of the organization (and actually has competed in the AER in a Predator buggy a few times) and Schlesser went into partnership with Metge and then it was called the Africa Eco Race.
Like other inmates have said its an alterative to the Paris Dakar Rally. It follows some of the old routes but Metge has found new other routes as well. If you look at there routes they keep the rally to the west of N/A when they leave Morocco and enter the Western Sahara Reign which would you believe is looked after by a small group of UN Peace Keepers. This way the rally is some what protected, but the final stage is always at the Pink Lake in Senegal just like the old days.

 

Just the fact that Pål Anders Ullevålseter is competing (and quite probably winning) is enough of a reason to keep aware of the event. He's raced this and the SA Dakar as we know it.

Not sure what coverage you guys'll get in NA but good chance it'll have some coverage via Eurosport if you have access to Euro based TV. Also a great source for Dakar coverage.

 

Interesting stuff. If issues in Africa were to stabilize and the Dakar were to move back to Dakar, I wonder if the AER would end. I suppose it probably would.

 

Paolo Ceci and Harite Gabari dont agree with you. Agoshkov as well...
There will be a Caprioni KTM LC8 - big pig of a bike too...

Thierry Magnaldi in a Yamaha UTV...

 

It's a nice race to watch each year, it's made in the same spirit of the dakar back in the days
lots of real bivouac
I was in a hope to see a battle De rooy vs Kamaz but no kamaz on the list, Tomecek is great on is Tatra but alone against six Iveco, 3 MAN !!!

 

Looks like what, 45 Car/Truck and 38 bike entries? I'll have to go back and look but I think that's a pretty good # for them. Also a few high end vehicle entries as well--a Mini and a Pug. Also one American entry under Nathan Rafferty on a KTM.

 

It's not a factory Peugeot or any of those you expect, its just a buggy with the name of pug...
Serradori as well in his MCM/SRT buggy (sorry, I like 2WD) and he has good chances...
Zapltal in the Hummer, bunch of 2WD buggies from MD Sport and a new FDS buggy, Besson in an Overdrive Toyota

 

ahhh...very good...but the Mini is one of the real Mini's?

 

yes, but no longer supported by X-Raid. Vasiliev was with X-Raid as client but then bought it out and at some point took over assets of a local team in his native Saint-Petersburg. He has the Mini which they modify themselves and an older X3 for Russian races. He also does a lot of stage rally training. He brings 2 T5 Merc trucks to EcoRace + 2 Toyota support vehicles - media and crew. His co-driver Konstantin Zhiltosov used to navigate Schlesser before JLS stopped racing. Probably one of the most experienced navigators out there from Eastern Europe.

 

Learn something new every day, I didn't know that Konstantin Zhiltosov navigated for Schlesser and I have followed JLS for a long time. Thanks for that.!

 

Bob - any idea what the "no race" stickers across some of the race numbers are all about?