AMV Shamrock - Rallye du Maroc: Sand all over the place

So many new developments on this 5th leg of the AMV Shamrock-Rallye du Maroc 2008 ! This sand-colored day completely changed the rankings for the cars, bikes and quads. Jean-Louis Schlesser and his buggy imposed himself easily today with Leonid Novitskiy's BMW a prisoner of the dunes. For the bikes, Thierry Bethys hands over the lead to David Frétigné because of a mechanical accident this morning, which had him turn around, and a minor fall this afternoon.

In the quads, Vincent Albira finished the first lap quite late with a broken chain and Climent Vicent takes the lead. Laurent Renault, leader of the Enduro Cup, keeps his position and is 9th in the overall. Now alone in the truck category with Elisabete Jacinto's withdrawal, Richard Bouey is on with his truck.

Today was all about sand. From the start the competitors went through a large chott then a beautiful erg with golden dunes, but with extremely soft sand! Deflating the tires, boards, shovels and straps had to be taken out, some tough work under the sun.

Then a bit of rest with a fast track until a reg was reached, a mix between small and big rocks and dunes. This 4O km off-track required four major direction changes. Another chance to the navigators to « stroll around ». The going back up between the erg and the camel grass allow the riders and drivers to fully express themselves. But the rain came during the second lap and a violent storm burst above the dunes, offering the surrealistic view of a desert storm. Almost like the Enduro du Touquet, in Morocco !

Just as he was starting the first lap, Thierry Bethys was the victim of a stupid incident with a gas tube pinched against the body of his bike, and his bike was starting to "cough". The rider turned around nd headed for the service park but precious minutes were flying by and David Frétigné was racing already. Michel Marchini also made a navigation mistake and lost 8 minutes. Bruno Da Costa, winner of yesterday's leg, was opening the trail for the first time today.

Joined by Frétigné, then Bethys at km 70, the two Honda riders crossed the line together. The second lap was not easy for Bethys either. As Frétigné was bettering his time of the morning, Thierry Bethys fell in front of Bruno Da Costa at km 30 and gave up any chance to make up for his delay, with a broken GPS.

Michel Marchini got the second best time of the afternoon and stole a few minutes from Da Costa in the overall. 5th in the leg and 6th in the overall, Michael Pisano had some fun surfing in the dunes. Harite Gabari learned a lot about the subtleties of rallies today. With two falls this morning and one this afternoon, the Moroccan rider got a big scare, but came out unharmed. Sébastien Coët, 7th in the leg and 7th in the overall, enjoyed each moment of this before-last day.

Laurent Renault, leader in the Enduro Cup, keeps the lead in his category and improved his time by 15 minutes in the second lap (in front of his two opponents, Gary Ennis et Stephen Malone). Very happy with his performance and his 9th position in the general.

If nothing changed in the Enduro Cup, the quads were something different. Vincent Albira and his broken chain had a very trying day today. 15 km after starting, he had the unpleasant surprise to find out his spare chain was too long. Friendly competitors Boutet and Cornuaille brought him a third one in their buggy Trio. Unfortunately they got stuck 2km after starting and the delivery was far from quick.

In the meantime, Jean-Louis Schlesser, going for his second lap, brought a fourth part, which was delivered at lightening speed, but the chain was once again too long! The Trio eventually made it and the chain was changed immediately but it just was an unlucky day for Vincent as his chain broke again and he had to finish the lap pulled by a press car. The French rider thus lost the lead and his spirits.…

Leonid Novitskiy had little experience with dunes and realized that today on a very soft sand. In the first lap he lost 33 minutes on Jean-Louis Schlesser and saw the lead drive away from him. Several accidents in the sand allowed the blue buggy to take the lead. Ronan Chabot was steady once again and kept his third place in the overall and first in the T2. A beautiful performance for the MD Sport team, with Régis Delahaye 2nd in the first lap and Jean-Noël Julien 3rd in the second.

Etienne Smulevici had a lot of fun in this terrain made for buggies and finished 4th in the Fennec leg. The Balloy-Becart team and their Bowler kept going, 6th in the overall.

Finally for the SSVs, Alain Fricker finished this sandy leg, seemingly made especially for his Drakart. With a broken intercom, navigator Pierre Antoniali had to resort to sign language to indicate the proper path. For the truck, Elisabete Jacinto reluctantly withdrew yesterday with some mechanical issue and Richard Bouey was free to roam.…

Tomorrow, the last leg of this AMV Shamrock-Rallye du Maroc will feature a single lap. No mistakes allowed on a track which will be different for bikes and cars. The competitors will have to be worthy of the beach.

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Lydie ARPIZOU –  photo NPO