AFRICA RACE 2022 - START MONACO

AFRICA ECO RACE 2022: ON THE WAY TO DAKAR !

It is under a magnificent autumn sun and with more than 25 degrees on the thermometer that the 14th ^edition of the AFRICA ECO RACE began this Saturday, October 15, 2022, from the French Mediterranean coast.

During two days, and for the fifth consecutive year, the city of Menton welcomed, for the administrative and technical checks, 500 people from the caravan of the only African Rally to leave from the European continent. Thus, in front of thousands of admiring passers-by or motorsport enthusiasts, the hundred or so vehicles in the race and raid were carefully checked by the organization team. All this in a most convivial and even happy atmosphere, as following a long wait, the competitors and the organizers did not hide their joy to meet again.

Like Anthony SCHLESSER, the manager of the event, all smiley in front of the cameras of the television team: " After this two-year break, it was about time, for our participants and ourselves, that the sport and adventure relive again. We fought so hard to keep the event afloat during the COVID parenthesis that today, we all experience this comeback of the AFRICA ECO RACE with a sense of freedom. Admittedly, on the sporting, economic or even geopolitical level in Europe, the period is not ideal and inevitably, the number of participants is affected by it this year. But the important thing was to get back on track, at all costs and it's done! We are also going to discover the African landscapes crossed in other conditions than those we have always known in January, and this is a real added value to this 2022 edition. The offroad rally lovers were not mistaken and moreover, many who were not, for various reasons, ready to race, entered the Raid category. A nice way to be in the adventure without the pressure of the stopwatch. Anyway, we are going to do our best to supervise the Rally or the Raid as well as possible and, as always, bring as many finishers as possible to the mythical Lac Rose in Dakar on October 30th. But before that, it is important to thank the City of Menton and the Principality of Monaco for, once again, a magnificent welcome reserved for the AFRICA ECO RACE. Now, on our way to Dakar! »

Once the formalities have been completed in Menton, straight to Monaco to join the parc fermé set up once more on the Quai Antoine ^1er. It was 7 p.m. when Jean Luc REICHMANN, the famous French television host and actor, guest of honor in Monaco for this 14th edition of the AFRICA ECO RACE, raised the flag for Pal Anders ULLEVALSETTER, double winner of the race. On his KTM N°100, the Norwegian biker sets off for 5951 km including 3640 of race through Morocco, Mauritania and Senegal.

For nearly two hours, the hundred vehicles, motorcycles, quads, cars, SSVs and trucks, of the Rally and Raid categories, followed one another under the starting arch installed on the Quai Antoine 1 ^er in front of the famous restaurant STARS 'N' BARS, historical partner of the Monegasque start of the AFRICA ECO RACE. A ceremony with a party feeling, as all the participants, organization team, as well as the spectators, were happy to finally see the start of the last great African Rally going to Dakar, the Senegalese city forever capital of the world of this sport.

This Sunday, October 16, 2022, after a free transfer to the port of Sète, the AFRICA ECO RACE caravan will embark in the afternoon on the ATLAS, ferry of the Italian company GNV, partner carrier of the event, direction Nador in northern Morocco where the arrival is scheduled for Tuesday at dawn. As soon as the wheels hit African soil, the serious things will begin with a first stage consisting of a short special on the road to southern Morocco . A warm-up that should already show off the entertainers of this 2022 edition.