Headed to the OiLibya Rallye du Maroc

Yup, headed there in three weeks.  Will be covering the event for an online publication (I think?!?!) and trying to give readers a feel of what the event and major international Rally-Raid is like in person.

I will be getting schlepped from location to location by the organizers and also staying in a tent with the rest of the media during the desert bivouac that marks the highlight of the event.  The list of racers is not out yet but is expected to include all the best racers from the top flight teams including Nasser Al-Attiyah, Giniel de Villiers, Yazeed al-Rajhi, Stephane Peterhansel, etc.

Let me know if you have any questions or photos you'd like me to ask or take while on site.  I should have consistent internet access so I will be posting info on a daily basis.

OiLibya Rallye du Maroc

How Do You Know the Dakar is Big??

When you can sell out a stadium simply to watch a Dakar winner's bike do a backflip...not the actual guy who won the Dakar...just some standin on the bike that won the Dakar...

Book Review: To Dakar and Back...

I was introduced to this book by one of my codrivers for the upcoming NORRA Mexican 1000 Rally, Paul Hartl who has both done the Baja 1000 in a Class 11 VW bug and is friends/acquaintances with the author o
f this book, Lawrence Hacking.

Mr. Hacking became the very first Canadian to complete the Dakar in 2001 on a Honda 650R as a privateer.  He recaps his efforts in that rally in this book and it is a great primer for anyone looking to enter a long rally or rally-raid event.  Not that it contains info on how to prepare your vehicle or give you recommended checklists for you to go through before leaving.  Hacking I believe is too smart for that...he knows the way rallies and rally-raids work...you can pack everything you can ever think of and yet end up needing the single item you know you left sitting in your garage ignored in your preparations.

Instead Hacking provides enough insight and descriptions of his race in 2001 to let you know that it is perhaps your mindset, resourcefulness and ability to roll with the punches that will get you through.  You can't plan away bad things from happening, instead you have to be mentally strong enough to deal with the disasters that are sure to befall you in the course of an event like these.  Not that you should be haphazard or neglectful in your preparations--far from it.  But you need to be wise enough to know that you don't know what you don't know...you can only be mentally prepared to deal with whatever happens.  If that means you need to deal with the end of your race then that's what it means.  If you need to run five miles through the desert to get a tool from a local goat herder, then you have to be ready to do so.

The book itself can sometimes run into a bit of repetition as the events Hacking describes can bear a similarity to one another from stage to stage but there is plenty of historical information regarding the Dakar, its history and its participants to keep a reader and a fan of the sport interested.

Items like the fact that 2001 winner Jutta Kleinschmidt and runner up Jean-Louis Schlesser were a romantic item before an acrimonious split that left them vicious competitors both on and off the stage, American rider Jimmie Lewis's grand effort on board a big BMW--breaking a number of bones in a crash only 200 yards from the finish in Dakar as he attempted to to win the final stage on behalf of his overmatched sponsor, and P.G. Lundmark's incredible privateer effort as well as many more anecdotes and stories are included here.

The tone of the work is straightforward and direct.  There is no flowery descriptions of the action, just a matter-of-fact recounting of events.  The work has made me realize the great similarities between rally-raid/rally events and another sport I love, mountaineering.  Hacking often recounts the individuals he has come to know that have passed in one way or another over the years, much like the mountaineering works I have covered recount the deaths of climbers in the mountains of the world.  The mental and physical strains put on the participants is strikingly familiar between the sports as is the selfish nature of each requiring vast amounts of time away from families in order to reach for some personal goal valued by a very few.  Whatever the disease is that infects those who "play" at these sports, Hacking has it and describes his involvement in what is the rally-raid world's equivalent of climbing Everest or K2 with skill and candor (often covering the hypocrisy and divergence between himself and his fellow competitors and the poor of the geographies he covers).  Not necessarily a book for everyone, but definitely a book for everyone involved in these sports/events.

Book Review: Tales From The Bivouac

This review is bound to be biased given my intense interest in the subject but I'll try to be balanced.

Tales From the Bivouac is a collection of personal tales from individual racers participating in various rally-raid events around the world.  Though nothing in the book or on the associated website states that the work limits itself the tales of motorcyclists, it ends up that way in the second edition of this series (which is the one reviewed here--I haven't read the first edition).

This is a wise course of action for the work.  While the stories of "car" drivers could be valuable as well, no participants have to be so self sufficient and involved in every detail of their racing as a biker.  This gives them a more comprehensive view of the race and what it entails and, as a benefit to the reader, first hand experience with every little breakdown and misadventure.

Covering the Australian Rally (Jason Adams on an Airhead BMW), Mexican 1000 (Doug Chapman in his first Rally Raid), Dakar (Kevin Muggleton in an event that ended far to early for his liking) and the Baja Rally (Jeremy Brown), TFTB Vol. II isn't focused on the pointy end of the competitive entries but instead on the sportsman efforts that are closer to the efforts that I or most "regular" folks would put together.  Stories of rushed preparation efforts, limited budgets, redneck vehicle fixes, all night drives, and overwhelming elation at having just finishing one of these events are familiar to many.

Apart from the great stories of personal drive in the face of enormous obstacles are the wonderful photos throughout the work.  Taking some of the best images from these events and printing them in full or nearly so page sized versions turns this into something worthy of being on a coffeetable.  Printed in heavy stock, brilliant white paper, the work is not a hardcover but far from a cheap magazine.  The love and care that the editors put into their own racing efforts as well as of being true fans of the sport is clearly shown.  It could use a bit more proofing as spelling and grammar errors are more evident than they should be but that does not take away from what is at the core of Tales From the Bivouac.  It is the love of rally that shines through both in the stories and in the quality of the work.  TFTB brings that love front and center in beautiful images and words worthy of any Rally fan.

If you want your own copy--which I highly suggest--go here for more info and ordering instructions:  http://www.tftb.org/

Baja Portalegre 2013...

This Rally Raid event took place a couple months back.  In reality for such a small country Portugal certainly has its fair share of big time offroad events including the WRC Portugal event and this, long form Rally Raid contest.

This was the 27th year of the Baja Portalegre, making it one of the longest held Raid events in the world and as it is held annually in early November, serves as the final warmup for numerous teams heading to the Dakar--including the Mini team in recent years, Colin McRae in his first every Rally Raid (in a Nissan pickup) and the dominant VW Toureg team featuring Carlos Sainz and American Mark Miller.

For reference out there, the base entry fee for the event was 2,000 Euros and the Special Stage mileage was 418kms.

At the end of the day it was the Mitsubishi Racing Lancer of Miguel Barbosa (a local Portugal driver) taking the win with an average of 71 kmph.  The top flight effort and Dakar Mini driver of Krzyszstof Holocwzyc finished second and the Overdrive Toyota HiLux of Reinoldo Varelo of Brazil finished third.

The top finishing Nissan was the Polish team of Marek Dabrowski with his Navara who ended up in seventh.  Other Nissan entries finished 10th, 15th, 21st, 25th, and 27th among the 34 finishers and approximately 42 entrants.

Oh and the BMW shown was  of two 325s in the event with the other one taking the class win for "cars" showing there's no excuse for rally cars not to do these more WRC style Rally Raids...

Caselli, a Porsche and a Cummins All Meet In the Desert...

 
With exactly 75 days to go before the start of the '14 Dakar rally major teams are getting in their last competitive events and testing before packing up their vehicles for the trip to South America.  The 2013 Rally du Maroc (Rally Morocco) saw at least three of these top teams show up for a run through the dunes, sand and rock that should reflect similar conditions to the more "desert" oriented stages of the Dakar.

KTM was present with their top riders--Marc Coma, Chaleco Lopez and American Kurt Caselli.  Caselli would suffer an early 20 minute penalty for missing a waypoint but would battle back to finish in 7th overall.  Without the penalty, Caselli would have finished 6th overall, some 44 minutes back.  The top 6 spots alternated Honda-KTM with Honda coming out on top and looking strong for Dakar.  Additional note here is that while there was only one American in the field, there was also an Australian, two Venezuelans, one Mexican (Carlos Gracida-Garza who finished 20th on a Honda), two Chileans, one South African, one Bolivian and one Brit.  Good to see a wide spread of entrants from across the globe.

Also showing up was a very cool Porsche from the Italian driver/codriving pair of Agostino Rizzardi and Loris Calubini.  They appear to have only made it through Stage 3 of 6.  Agostino has piloted a number of Porsches in various stage rally events around Europe and was using an 4WD Porsche 911 for Rally Morocco.  Great to see one of these back out in the African sand again.

Lastly we have the SMG buggie (a French builder headed by Philippe Gache) that is backed by Cummins of France which finished 2nd overall.  Piloted by Patrick Sireyjol with Francois Beguin as codriver, the Cummins France team finished nine minutes off the top step though this is a tad misleading as the event winner incurred 38 minutes of penalties.  Dropping all penalties the Cummins team would have finished some 44 minutes adrift and still in second place overall.  The Cummins vehicle prevented a clean sweep of the podium by the Rally-Raid dominant X-Raid Minis who finished first, third and fourth lead by top flight Dakar entrant Orlando Terranova.


Oh!!  and the top Nissan in the event?  It was the #342 of Michele Cinotto and Fulvio Zini who finished in 20th of 56 finishers with Nissan putting six finishing vehicles in the event behind only Toyota who saw 17 finishers carry their brand.
Rally Morocco Homepage..

.

Australasian Safari 2013--Vehicross, Forester and Sidecar Oh My!

The 2013 Australasian Safari has an additional reason for hype this year as one moto and one "car" entry will win a free entry into the 2014 Dakar based on their performance.  Outside of this, the largest offroad rally in Western Australia is one of the longest and toughest in the Southern Hemisphere. The event has drawn a number of entrants from around the world over the years including ORMHOF (Offroad Motorsports Hall of Fame) member Rod Hall and his team of Hummers in recent years.

While one of the world's classic offroad races, due to its remoteness, like the Taupo 1000 in New Zealand it does draw a number of grassroots and more obscure competitors in addition to those at the top of the industry.  Along with these more grassroots entries comes some of the more interesting vehicles out there racing today.

Example #1--The 1998 Isuzu Vehicross of Andrew and David Travis.  The Vehicross is an iconic SUV of which few were produced, so to see one out racing is remarkable.  I believe this is only the second one I've ever seen in offroad competition and that it is doing so some 15 years after its production is awesome.  Coming into the last day of the event (Leg 7 of 7) the bright yellow Vehicross is sitting 3rd in the event some hour and 20 minutes out of first place.

Example #2--The 2008 Subaru Forester of Robert Herridge and Sam Hill.  The Forester is not exactly your typical offroad racing vehicle but it seems to be holding its own, sitting in 4th place in the event, 2 hours and a half hours out of the lead (25 entries in the "car" class this year).  Given how rocky and sandy sections of this course are, the fact that a Forester (a supposedly "road" oriented SUV) has done this well is impressive.

Example #3--The KTM 525 GPR of Max and Sam Hutchesson.  Yup...a KTM sidecar.  The only sidecar in the event the pair seem to have a great deal of experience as a quick Google search of them picks up numerous photos of them racing and of their various race results in enduros and other offroad motorcycle events around Australia.  Their entrance ends a 17 year absence of sidecars from the Australasian Safari.  They sit some 10 hours adrift but are still in the event and putting on a fantastic show.

Lastly we'll throw in a couple of Nissan Patrols to represent the Nissan's in the field.  There are two Nissan Patrols remaining.  One sits in 6th place three hours and eight minutes adrift and the other sits in 12th, 17 hours back.

One day of racing remains before the event's conclusion.

Condolences are due to the family and friends of biker Ivan Erceg who lost his life on 9/25 during the first stage of the day.  Vaya Con Dios Ivan.

2013 NETRA Rocky Mountain Hare Scramble in Alton, NH

Taking place up near Lake Winnipesaukee in Alton, NH, the Rocky Mountain Hare Scramble put on by NETRA (New England Trail Rider Association) was the first one I'd been to since I was about 10 years old.  I still remember the motorcycles racing through the woods at the event I went to with my father some 30 years ago and hopefully my son will remember this day just as fondly.

The weather on 7/28/13 was wonderful.  Sunny for almost the whole day with a slight overcast at the later afternoon.  Everyone at the event was super friendly answering my son's many questions and directing us to the best locations for viewing.  You could get as close as you dare to the riders and yet no one was doing anything stupid and getting in harms way.  Perhaps this was because most of the spectators were relatives or crew members of the various riders but everyone seemed well behaved.

The track itself weaved its way through nine miles of typical New England forest with lots of rocks, roots, brush and mud to contend with.  Even the youngest and least experienced riders had a skill level far beyond my meager dirt skills however and I was super impressed by the number of female riders who were out there putting the hammer down.

All in all it was a great event to attend and inspires both myself and my son to get involved more actively in enduros and hare scrambles and the like.  A compilation of video clips taken with my camera are below.  Quality is low but you get the idea...

Kurt Caselli Article in Cycle News...

The writers behind Cycle News penned a cool little interview with Kurt Caselli (he of two stage wins in the 2013 Dakar).

Some interesting tidbits include how Marc Coma helped him prepare, how much lead time he had before shipping off to South America and what, if any, differences he found between racing here in the States and Baja and in the Dakar.

Cycle News is nice enough to make their magazine available for free online and you can read the article here:

Kurt Caselli article in Cycle News...

Great Review of the Honda NC700X

Since I'm always interested in motorcycles that can do more than just ride around on the pavement (any scooter can do that) this review came to my immediate attention.  While I don't think the bike is offroad oriented enough for my liking its cool to see the reviewer stretching the bike's limits and seeing how it fairs up against some world class bikes capable of Dakar style riding.

I still think I'd get a KLR 650 for near the same money...but this is an interesting option for a more road going bikes which is where I'd still spend most of my time.

Honda NC700X Review...

Proof You Don't Have to be a Dink...

to be a world class racer.

Kurt Caselli, he of two stage wins in the 2013 Dakar (his first) had recently returned to the US and has not been resting up.  Instead he dove right in AMA National Hare and Hound series contesting the Lucerne Valley, CA event on the weekend of January 26th.

While he would only finish 16th in the season opener (losing his rear brakes due to an impact with a boulder) it was his actions during the event that brought the most note.

A fellow rider was down with a broken leg and instead of riding on by and pushing to make up time as many racers would, he stopped, helped the rider back on his bike and assisted in getting him to the nearest medical team.

Mr. Peterhansel, the winner in the car category in the Dakar this year has been a notorious dink in rally-raid, bumping bike racers over in a river and trundling on as if nothing had happened in one instance.  Its nice to see someone, particularly an American, able to perform well and be a seemingly good guy at the same time.

Caselli stops to assist injured rider...

Kurt Caselli Wins at Dakar!

The torch for offroad American motorcycling has been passed again.  In recent years a single American rider has held the position of showing the world that we can produce world class two wheel pilots.  In prior years it has been Chris Blais (who finished third in the 2007 Dakar) followed by Jonah Street and then Quinn Cody.

This year it is Kurt Caselli putting the world on notice.  Caselli won today's Stage 7 of the 2013 Dakar by covering the 218km special stage 1:23 faster than the next fastest competitor.  Not only does this make him the first American to win a Dakar stage in '13 (and perhaps the only one this year) but it moves him into 8th place overall for the event some 27 minutes back of the leader.

Caselli is really only present at the 2013 Dakar due to the late injury of Dakar legend Marc Coma whereby Caselli replaced Coma on the factory KTM team.  Given that this announcement came only in late December, one cannot imagine Caselli had a whole ton of time to prepare for this year's Dakar--particularly when the other top flight riders spend all year preparing for such an event.

Caselli is well known here in the States for his participation and wins in the WORCS, Hare & Hound series as well as Endurocross, the Six Days Enduro competition in Germany and the KTM factory Baja team.  Hopefully we will see Caselli continue to succeed in the '13 Dakar and see him announced early on this year as a teammate with Coma for the '14 Dakar.  With a full year of prep he should be able to sit near the top of the podium, perhaps acting as the one to whom Coma may pass his torch to upon his retirement.

ADVMoto--My New Favorite Magazine?

This magazine has likely been out there for a while (honestly I don't know) but I just ran across it the other day and immediately bought it.  Published bi-monthly in both a digital and print version ADVMoto concentrates on dualsport motorcycles, their owners and their adventures.

I've always looked up to the motorcycle guys (and girls) I've raced alongside.  They're WAY more out there than I am, all huddled up in my nice thick steel cage and 4000 pounds of steel mass.  It speaks to me even more so on the side of me that loves to do things on my own.

Plus I love seeing all the places that dualsport owners take their bikes--its even better than where rally and offroad racers get to take their vehicles, even more remote and untouched and wild.

Owning a little old KDX200 it has me searching around for what options do I have for making it into a useful dualsport bike and perusing the Internet for "best small dualsport motorcycle" recommendations.  Ahh, the power of print, quality writing and good photography...

http://www.adventuremotorcycle.com/