Africa Race: the amateur Dakar Rally still racing in Africa

At the finish line of the 2009 Dakar Rally, there were plenty of competitors lauding the all-new South American version of the rally as a ‘true Dakar’. Having seen them complete over 9,500km across some of the most breath-taking scenery imaginable, few observers were prepared to argue.

Pre-race, event organisers promised that the new rally would provide all of the same challenges that had been faced in Africa; coining the slogan ‘100% Dakar’. True to their word, riders and drivers alike faced an arduous mix of incredible dunes, choking fesh fesh, hazardous rocks, complex navigation, and high speed rallying. It was everything that competitors could have hoped for. Some sections proved so tough that teams had to sleep out in the desert. The spirit of the Dakar lived on in this new rally.

For a select few though, a ‘Dakar’ held in Argentina and Chile was never going to be ‘100% Dakar’. Whilst the name of the now 30 year old rally, its organisers, and the factory teams could all move on, the sheer thrill and romance of a North-African adventure could never be transported elsewhere. Thus, with the united passion of a band of French rally-raid tragics, a new event, to be called simply ‘Africa Race’, was born. Security threats or not, these racers were determined to keep the Dakar alive in its African form.

Whilst the media, manufacturers, and hordes of major sponsors may not have been present, Africa Race was far from being an amateur event slapped together by a motley crew of privateers. Sanctioned by both the FIA and FIM, and backed by popular sports drink company Powerade, the route for the first Africa Race was designed by non-other than former Dakar race director Hubert Auriol. Having won the Dakar rally himself in both the car and bike classes, Auriol understands the race, and the people who make it happen, better than most.

"There was a need for this new competition,” he said prior to the event, “because there were strong calls from the drivers and everyone else concerned for a major sports event in Africa.”


Setting off from Marseilles, France, on December 26th 2008, the competitors would complete over 7,000kms across 15 days on their way through Morocco, Mauritania, and Senegal, finally arriving at the Lac Rose in Dakar on January 11th. Unlike recent Dakars, the event stuck very much to the west coast of the troubled Mauritania, and no stages were to be held in Mali.

Headlining the entry list were two legends of the Dakar; two time car category winner Jean-Louis Schlesser, and former truck winner Jan De Rooy. Schlesser, whose wins in 1999 and 2000 made him the most recent non-Mitsubishi winner of the car class until Volkswagen’s success this last years, told reporters on the Africa Race of his disinterest in the new Dakar.

“I prefer to come here because the terrain in Argentina it's more difficult for me” he said. “It's important to get back to when rallies had a more human dimension, not all about big money.”

Having initially expected somewhere in the order of 300 competitors, the final entry list was a poor number of 30 (12 cars, 8 motorbikes and 4 trucks). It was a big disappointment. It’s a testament to the immense passion that these people have for Africa that the rally went ahead regardless...

Not surprisingly, Schlesser and De Rooy won the car and truck categories respectively, whilst Spaniard Juan Manuel Pellicer took out the motorcycle class on his BMW. Whilst the first ever Africa Race certainly won’t go down as the closest rally-raid on record, it will thankfully be remembered as a safe one. With France's foreign ministry officially warning the event organisers that the proposed route posed "serious risks" from militants associated with al Qaeda's North Africa branch, safety was always going to be of upmost importance.

Keen to show the world that their countries were still a safe destination for rallyists and tourists alike, the Moroccan, Mauritanian and Senegalese authorities all assisted greatly with security. Each country dispatched military reinforcements to guard the convoy of competitors in and out of the various bivouacs. Whilst several involved in the rally remain bullish about the future growth of the rally, the safe completion of the small 2008/09 event hardly proves that Mauritania is once again a safe place to hold a major international sporting event.

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