French
English
STAGE 5 : 695 km
START FROM THE BIVOUAC
SPECIAL STAGE : REMZ EL QUEBIR / JREIFIFA : 456 km
LIAISON : JREIFIFA / DAKHLA : 239 km
After the nicest stage in terms of driving/riding, will then be the most pleasant Moroccan stage for the eyes. Once again, a start from the bivouac will allow the pilots to immediately get in the action. In the program of the day, the great Moroccan south with, at the beginning of the stage the depression of Amra which is absolutely grandiose. Until what we call the carpet, which carries the ore from the mine over more than 100 km, the course will be identical to that of 2016. Once arrived there, the track will head full south in the heart of the large areas with a beautiful plain landscape and therefore without big difficulty as to driving. On the other hand, the navigation will be complicated with the presence of many parallel tracks but, obviously, only one will be the right one. The last fifty kilometers will be entirely new and rather fast. The advantage of an ultimate Moroccan stage, which is rather long, is to have significantly shorter connection along the Atlantic Ocean, to the tongue of sand in Dakhla where will be planted the bivouac by the sea, for a well deserved rest day.
DAKHLA : WELL DESERVED
FRIDAY JANUARY 6TH 2017
REMZ EL QUEBIR / DAKHLA
Stage : 696 km
Liaison 285 km
Special Stage REMZ EL QUEBIR / JREIFIFA : 457 km
Liaison JREIFIFA / DAKHLA : 239 km
On a large offroad Rally like the AFRICA ECO RACE®, arriving at the rest day is already a deserved performance. But this is especially true when the bivouac is located in Dakhla, in the extreme south of Morocco and it takes 800 kilometers to get there. However, this year, due to recent flooding in the Laayoune region, which made things complicates, the day's special stage had been amputated for the first 185 kilometers. The most interesting part in fact, because the remaining 270 kilometers was a kind of sprint across huge desert plains. A not very selective stage, except in the motorcycle category where the navigation was very complicated for those who opened the track.
SELLA FALLS, AGOSHKOV ON TOP !
By doing no errors at all since the beginning of the week , Gev SELLA had once again the delicate task to open today’s special stage. Something that was working quite well for the young isreali prodigy. Unfortunately there were many tracks on today’s stage and he eventually got lost. As a result, 17th position on today’s stage at 40,23min from Dmitry Agoshkov, winner of the day. The first time for the Russian rider, doing no errors with his KTM. He was actually the only to find the right capes as Pal Anders Ullevalseter and Harite Gabari “gardened” a bit before the Moroccan actually found the right track and finishing both together at 1,47min and 3,45min behind Agoshkov. After that, Paolo Ceci also lost some time on his Honda, finishing 4th at 15,54min. The Italian is ahead of Slovak Martin BENKO on KTM, for the first time in the top 5. Just behind, like in stage N ° 4, new drivers make their appearance at the top of the rankings like Swedish Anders BERGLUND on a HUSABERG In 6th position and 1st of the day of 'Malles Motos'' MOTUL, the Portuguese Alexander Vivien AZINHAIS, 7th on his KTM, the Swedish Henrik RAHM, 9th or the Frenchman Laurent WEIBEL, 10th. A word also about the only female driver in the category Moto since Julie VANNEKEN, who participates to her first off road Rally, today ranks 22nd and 27th overall. A provisional classification where Gev SELLA is still leading by 39'53 '' ahead of Paolo CECI and 57'05 '' minutes ahead of Pal Anders ULLEVALSETER. This will for sure relaunch the suspense for the second week in Mauritania.
MAGNALDI PERSISTS, AND IS VICTORIOUS
Unlike in the Motorcycle category, there was no big problem of navigation on four wheels. It was therefore, for all, maximum attack and in this small game, it is once again Thierry MAGNALDI and his Two Wheels Drive Buggy which was the best. The French has indeed completed this selective stage long of 270 km in 1h56'21 '', at an average speed of 139 km / h. An infernal cadenza that Vladimir VASILYEV and his MINI could not follow since he finished 2nd at 5'07 ''. On the other hand, this very fast course was very successful at Andrey KARGINOV who, at the wheel of his KAMAZ, made his return to the top of the ranks among the cars by signing the 3rd time of the day at 9'31 ''. Still performing well, Andrey CHEREDNIKOV's FORD Raptor allows the Kazakh crew to get the 4th time at 10'02, 39 seconds ahead of Dominique HOUSIEAUX decidedly very fit on his OPTIMUS Buggy since the start of the race. Superb performance also by Rémy VAUTHIER. Perfectly co-piloted by Jean BRUCY, the Swiss placed his OPTIMUS Buggy in 7th position for his first participation in a large offroad Rally, just behind Guillaume GOMEZ also on a Buggy built by MD RALLYE SPORT. On the other hand, the French team lost one of its 7 Buggies today as Philippe GOSSELIN unfortunately crashed. Fortunately, the driver and his co-pilot were not injured.
In the T2 category vehicles, Marat ABYKAYEV also had very heavy foot on the accelerator of his TOYOTA since he ranked in 19th place of the day. The 2nd in T2 is Thierry PICCO who has not hesitated to lose 43 minutes in order to help to repair the Predator Buggy of Xavier LORMAND, which had no more fuel. This is also the spirit of the AFRICA ECO RACE® and of course the time he lost will be given back to him.
Overall, MAGNALDI comes back back on VASILYEV. He is now at 22'18 '' while the truck of KARGINOV is back on the podium, at more than an hour but only 8 seconds before Pascal THOMASSE, author of an “ok” performance today.
Saturday January 7th, the caravan of the AFRICA ECO RACE® will be resting on a beautiful bivouac on a sandy beach of Dakhla, in the extreme south of Morocco. Temperatures above 20 degrees, a beautiful sun and the air of the Atlantic Ocean should allow everyone to recover, before attacking very seriously Sunday in Mauritania.
