AFRICE ECO RACE 2020: Stage 2+3 / 2.+3. Etappe – VIDEO-Highlights, RESULTS, Impressions – Ergebnisse und zahlreiche Bilder!

Stage 2 / 2. Etappe

 

---

HINWEIS: Mit Anklicken des Videos stellen sie automatisch eine Verbindung zu Youtube/Google her, was einen ungewünschten personenbezogenen Datenaustausch mit sich bringen kann. Weitere Infos unter: www.google.de/privacy

---

 

Stage 3 / 3. Etappe

---

HINWEIS: Mit Anklicken des Videos stellen sie automatisch eine Verbindung zu Youtube/Google her, was einen ungewünschten personenbezogenen Datenaustausch mit sich bringen kann. Weitere Infos unter: www.google.de/privacy

---

 

Results / Ergebnisse: BIKES – 3. Etappe / Stage 3

Pos	pgr	#	Nat.	Pilots	Make	Grp/Pos	Cl/Pos	Scratch	Diff 1st	Pena
1	+2	101		BOTTURI Alessandro		-450 / 1	/ 1	05:52:01
2	-1	106		ULLEVALSETER Pal Anders		-450 / 2	/ 2	05:56:14	00:04:13
3	+1	108		JENSEN Felix		-450 / 3	/ 3	05:58:57	00:06:56
4	+1	151		LUCCI Paolo		-450 / 4	/ 4	06:08:50	00:16:49
5	+1	120		CZACHOR Jacek		-450 / 5	/ 5	06:11:15	00:19:14
6	-4	100		POSKITT Lyndon		-450 / 6	/ 6	06:22:19	00:30:18
7	0	123		DABROWSKI Konrad		-450 / 7	/ 7	06:27:45	00:35:44
8	+3	112		BENKO Martin		-450 / 8	/ 8	06:28:37	00:36:36
9	+1	118		STASIACZEK Pawel		-450 / 9	/ 9	06:31:16	00:39:15
10	+4	105		JOHNSON Michael		-450 / 10	/ 10	06:38:50	00:46:49

 

Results / Ergebnisse: CARS / SSV / TRUCKS – 3. Etappe / Stage 3

 

Ranking OVERALL – BIKES

Pos	pgr	#	Nat.	Pilots	Make	Grp/Pos	Cl/Pos	Scratch	Diff 1st	Pena
1	+1	101		BOTTURI Alessandro		-450 / 1	/ 1	10:24:49
2	-1	106		ULLEVALSETER Pal Anders		-450 / 2	/ 2	10:27:33	00:02:44
3	+1	108		JENSEN Felix		-450 / 3	/ 3	10:48:38	00:23:49
4	-1	100		POSKITT Lyndon		-450 / 4	/ 4	10:55:39	00:30:50
5	0	151		LUCCI Paolo		-450 / 5	/ 5	11:04:40	00:39:51
6	0	120		CZACHOR Jacek		-450 / 6	/ 6	11:08:04	00:43:15
7	0	123		DABROWSKI Konrad		-450 / 7	/ 7	11:33:45	01:08:56
8	+2	118		STASIACZEK Pawel		-450 / 8	/ 8	11:43:53	01:19:04
9	+3	112		BENKO Martin		-450 / 9	/ 9	11:45:48	01:20:59
10	+3	105		JOHNSON Michael		-450 / 10	/ 10	11:57:08	01:32:19

 

Ranking OVERALL – CARS / SSV / TRUCKS

Pos	pgr	#	Nat.	Pilots	Make	Grp/Pos	Cl/Pos	Scratch	Diff 1st	Pena
1	+3	200		FROMONT Yves FROMONT Jean		T1 / 1	1.4 / 1	10:52:06
2	-1	420		KOVACS Miklos ACS Laszlo CZEGLEDI Peter		T4 / 1	4.1 / 1	10:52:59	00:00:53
3	0	204		MARTIN Patrick MARTIN Lucas		T1 / 2	1.4 / 2	10:53:09	00:01:03
4	-2	408		BOUWENS Igor BOERBOOM Ulrich DRIESMANS Frits		T4 / 2	4.1 / 2	11:22:51	00:30:45
5	+2	262		DEBANNE Alexandre LARDEAU Patrick		SSV / 1	/ 1	12:11:36	01:19:30
6	+2	260		FREBOURG Loic BOULAY Franck		SSV / 2	/ 2	12:14:31	01:22:25
7	+2	400		ESSERS Noel LAUWERS Marc VRANKEN Tijs		T4 / 3	4.1 / 3	12:16:25	01:24:19
8	-2	416		FAZEKAS Karoly HORN Albert CSAKANY Peter		T4 / 4	4.1 / 4	12:27:40	01:35:34
9	+9	406		TOMECEK Tomas		T4 / 5	4.1 / 5	12:36:10	01:44:04
10	-5	250		FRETIN Benoit DUPLé Cédric		SSV / 3	/ 3	12:38:05	01:45:59

 

Paralegic Rider on its on in a SSV / Querschnittsgelähmt allein im SSV

---

HINWEIS: Mit Anklicken des Videos stellen sie automatisch eine Verbindung zu Youtube/Google her, was einen ungewünschten personenbezogenen Datenaustausch mit sich bringen kann. Weitere Infos unter: www.google.de/privacy

---

 

2. Stage – Report

THE RACE IS WELL ON AT THE AFRICA ECO RACE 

The first night on the bivouac in Tarda, halfway between Er-Rachidia and Goulimine was extremely cold as temperature went down to -3 degrees at sunrise. Needless to say that after a long day yesterday and a complicated night for the majority of the participants of the AFRICA ECO RACE, the faces were marked on the starting line directly installed at the bivouac. Regardless, this first real stage of 333km went perfectly went and most of the competitors should be back at bivouac by nightfall.

In the large moto category, Pal Anders ULLEVALSETER showed the competitors how good of a competition he is by winning this special stage, with 8’10’’ ahead of Lyndon POSKITT and 9’35’’ on Alessandro BOTTURI. Departing in 8^th position, the Norwegian did not make any mistake on navigation, unlike the others. Indeed, Alessandro BOTTURI on his YAMAHA got caught up by Lyndon POSKITT on kilometre 40. The Italian opened the way several times but he lost the correct track, bringing the KTM and its British rider with him. Therefore, Lyndon also went on the wrong track. Later, the two leaders rode together until the finish line of this rather fast route. During this time, on his KTM, ULLEVALSETER was going full throttle and as in sport the best way to gain some time is not to loose any, the Norwegian ends up top of the general ranking  with 1’29’’ ahead of Botturi and 2’01’’ on OSKITT. Amongst the other performers of the day, the Italian Paolo LUCCI places his HUSQVARNA in 5^th position just in front of the Norwegian Félix JENSEN, who has performed nicely since the beginning. Konrad DABROWSKI, young 18-year-old rider from Poland confirms his potential by ranking 7^th, just before his “professor” Jacek CZACHOR, long term co-rider of his father Mark DABROWSKI.

The first moto +450 c3 is the KTM of the Italian Gabriele MINELLI finishing 16^th and the winner of the Motul Xtreme Rider malle moto category is the excellent British rider Richard KAYE on his KTM. A last word on the Italian rider Nicola DUTTO, number 128 who has the particularity of participating in the AFRICA ECO RACE without having the use of his legs. This is possible for him thanks to two other riders, the Spanish Julian GARCIA VILLARRUBIA and the Italian Stefano BALDUSSI who hold his motorbike at departures, refuelling and at arrival. They are of course present to help him in case of any problem and putting back up in case of fall. For now, everything is going for the best for Nicola who, on his specially equipped KTM, is in 26^th place on the temporary general ranking.

In the auto, SSV and truck category, ranked together in the scratch and in the general but then separately for a raking by category, the race is one of the most interesting and competitive yet. Indeed, depending on the configuration of the landscape, one of the other of these three vehicles can find an advantage.

Yesterday, the short special stage was perfect for the SSV. Today the long, fast, dusty, but also tough special stage going to Mhamid, were ideal for the trucks, especially the IVECO of Igor BOUWENS, Ulrich BOERBOOM and Frits DRIESMANS, at the scratch. A first very intense victory as the Belgiums left this morning in 49^th position and raced up the ranking by passing 42 vehicles. A superb special stage which enables them to take the 2^nd place in the temporary general ranking, just behind, and this is a first, the SCANIA of Miklos KOVACS, Lazlo ACS and Peter CZEGLEDI. After the departure, the Hungarians rapidly took the lead to do a perfect day. After their performance yesterday, they are therefore leaders of the 4 wheels with 22’24’’ ahead.

When it comes to the other trucks, who were also noticed today, we can note the 4^th place of the Hungarian SCANIA of Karoly FAZEKAS, Albert Horn and Peter CSAKANY, but also the 6^th place of the MAN of the Belgium Noël ESSERS, Marc Lauwers and Tijs VRANKEN in front of the Mercedes of Johan ELFRINK and Dirk SCHUTTEL.

The first auto in the general ranking arrived 3^rd at 24’15’’. It is the Mercedes Tarek Buggy of Patrick and Lucas MARTIN. The father and son arrived third today and was ahead of approx. 12 minutes the Tarek of friends Yves and Jean FROMONT also 4^th of the general at 27’32’’.

In the SSVXTREME RACE, with an 8^th place in the special stage, Benoit FRETIN and Cédric DUPLE finish first, a little more than 4 minutes ahead of Alexandre DEBANNE and Patrick LARDEAU who raced without taking any risk. Loïc FREBOURG and Franck BOULAY complete the podium of the day 100% CAN AM by ranking 12^th in the special stage.

As it’s the case in the moto category, the SSV category of the AFRICA ECO RACE includes two paraplegic drivers with the Italian Gianni Luca Tassi on his Yamaha, naviguated by Angelo MONTICO, and the Belgium Geoffroy NOEL DE BURLIN who is doing the race solo in a POLARIS. After this second day, all is going for the best for these exceptional drivers as Geoffrey is ranking 16^th in general and Gianni in 22^nd.

This Thursday 9^th of January, the third stage of the AFRICA ECO RACE will be one of the longest in terms of special stages with 497km. What is awaiting, all types of landscapes we can find in Morocco and all the difficulties we would expect from such a stage. A day which will probably create serious gaps between competitors.

3. Stage – Report

AN INTENSE AND VARIED DAY!

The third stage between Mahmid and Assa was expected extremely versatile in terms of landscapes and challenges. This special stage of nearly 500km, one of the longest of the 2020 Africa Eco Race, held its promise, especially near Erg Chegaga, first real dune cord of this 12th edition. Indeed, if the motorbikes, which left at sunrise, rode a solid enough sand, it was not the same for the autos, many of which will be arriving late today at the bivouac.

In the moto category, the faces were tired at the arrival outside the village of Assa and even for the most experienced of them, relief prevailed. Amongst the first leaving this morning, Pal Ander ULLEVALSETER could not keep ahead of Alessandro BOTTURI for long, and even if the Norwegian decided to go for a fast pace after the dunes, the KTM just couldn’t get away from the YAMAHA of the Italian. As a result, after the refueling, the two riders decided to collaborate and ride together to the finish line. BOTTURI logically ended up in front of ULLEVALSETER, who is still glad to only have 2’44 from last year’s winner in the general ranking. In third place, the Norwegian Felix JENSEN, with slightly damaged tires from the stones, has only 2’43’’behind his fellow patriot. For his third participation to the AFRICA ECO RACE, Felix is showing real progress and the two first riders will have to keep an eye on him in the next days. Another young rider stood out today, Paolo LUCCI who ends up 4th place with less than 10 minutes from JENSEN. The fellow-citizen of late Fabrizio MEONI is fast, navigates well and scores the 5th place in the temporary general ranking, just behind Lyndon POSKITT, who played it safe on his KTM today after a small fall in the dunes. The British adventurer ends up 6th of this special stage, 11’04’’ ahead of the Polish Jacek CZACHOR, keeping it regular. Special note for Norbert DUBOIS who celebrates his 60th today with a bang, by bringing his KTM from 43rd to 13th place on this special stage. The Parisian therefore ends up 16th in the general ranking and first of the French riders. On the 450cm3 +, the Mexican Juan Pablo GUILLEN also shows an amazing result by creeping up 47 places in the ranking. The KTM rider arrived today in first position in this category, dominated usually by Franco PICCO, 13th in the general ranking on his YAMAHA. The MOTUL XTREME RIDER category for the Malle Moto was dominated by Stephan SAVELKOULS, rider from the Netherlands. For now, the British Richard KAYE, 21^st in the general ranking, is leader of the category.

The stages follow one another but are very different in the AFRICA ECO RACE, as after the two first special stages dominated by the SSV, then the trucks, the autos ruled today. Yves and Jean FROMONT had a problem free day and even said upon arrival that they had a blast on all these type of landscapes. As a result, son and father are at the top of the ranking with their Tarek Buggy, followed by Patrick and Lucas MARTIN’s, who unfortunately got caught up twice in Erg Chegaga. The French team then pushed the gaz pedal to compensate the time lost in the dunes, but still ended up 4’20’’ behind their co-team. We have to scroll down to the 14^th place to find the 3^rd auto. It is indeed the Ford RAPTOR of Russian competitor Alexey TITOV and Dmitry PAVLOV, who are by the way 1^st of the T2 category.

Once more the trucks were able to give on a show; Miklos KOVACS, Lazlo ACS and Peter CZEGLEDI end up third of the special stage. Putting aside their sport performance, the Hungarian showed important human values, close to the race’s ethics, by loosing their 1^st place to FROMONT in the general ranking in order to help out of the dunes the IVECO of Igor BOUWENS, Ulrich BOERBOOM and Frits DRIESMANS. Without the help of the Hungarian team, the Belgians would have been stranded there for a while and yet, the two trucks are against each other in the category podium. Even though there game is far from over, this just shows you the spirit there is amongst these mastodons of the desert… a rare spirit! Once again, Noël ESSERS, Marc LAUWERS and Tijs VRANKEN finish 3^rd in this special stage. In their MAN, the Belgian team also has same place in the general ranking behind BOUWENS and KOVACS.

The SSV also made it out well of this long and difficult special stage. Loïc FREBOURG and Franck BOULAY place their CAN AM in 6^th position at 52’37’’ of the best time of the day. In this category SSV XTREME RACE, the French are ahead of their fellow patriots Alexandre DEBANNE and Patrick LARDEAU of about ten minutes. Anyways, the latter are first in their category and score a solid 5^th place in the general ranking for 4 wheel vehicles, just in front of FREBOURG and BOULAY by 2’55’’. We should also congratulate on this 3^rd special stage, the very good performance of the solo pilot in his SSV, Geoffroy NOEL DE BURLIN who, onboard his POLARIS, takes 10^th at the scratch. Therefore, the Belgian paraplegic driver, is ranked 11^th in the general.

Tomorrow, the competitors will take the direction of Smara, down south. To get to the bivouac, the competitors will tackle a brand new 385km special stage. A stage where driving skills will be put to the test as well as some usual navigation. This looks like a good program for tomorrow!

THEY SAID

Pal Anders ULLEVALSETER – KTM N°106 – TEAM ULLEVALSETER

We are only at the beginning of the rally. A lot can still happen. Today, Lyndon struggled in the dunes. Sometimes, I wanted to push more but I know that on a stage this long, anything can happen. It’s therefore very important to arrive at the bivouac and still be fit to compete the next day.

Alessandro BOTTURI – YAMAHA N°101 – TEAM BOTTURI

Today, I tried to push hard from the beginning. At kilometer 50, I caught up on Pal Anders. Then, I had a road-book problem. It wasn’t turning properly. I therefore arrived at refueling with Pal. Then from km 250, I tried to give it another push, but we decided to both keep a good rhythm. But Pal is a Viking. He is also very good. And in the end, it’s good because we were able to take more distance from the others. It was very important for me to do this because tomorrow, they will be leaving behind me and we’ll see what that will be like.

Franck BOULAY – CAN AM N° 260 – TEAM FESH-FESH

We are very happy because we navigated very well. We drove nicely and had no mechanical problem. We passed the dunes easily. After the sand, we came across a stony area. It was tiring and the special stage was very long. We are happy to be at the start and fulfilled our objective which was no mechanical issue and no getting lost. And on top of that, we are well ranked. We are tired, but happy.

Yves FROMONT – BUGGY N°200 – TEAM FROMONT

It was a nice special stage as we like them, with the Erg of Chegaga which this year was tough. We passed the trucks at the top of the dunes. We did not stay stuck. After that, we did good, especially at navigation which was quite hard as we were following the motorbikes. Jean really did good to orient us. I am happy because we make an excellent tandem both of us. I played my role in the dunes. And after, he took care of the navigation. It was perfect.

IMPRESSIONS

Quelle / Source: Africa Eco Race