The 2013-14 Africa Eco Race has concluded with a great run through Morocco, Mauritania and into Dakar in Senegal. We had a preview and a look at the first week of the running last week and here we have a look at the second and final week of the rally.
The second half of the rally was about 1400 competitive kilometers and like the first half, former F1 and sportscar ace, Jean-Louis Schlesser dominated in his bespoke buggy. The man has become an ace at off road events, taking two Dakar wins and now five Africa Eco Races.
Of the experimntal racers, the hybrid bike – the Zongshen of Willy Jobard wasn’t without problems and came home in 15th in the bikes, some 15 hours behind the winning Michel Pisano.
In the end, the spirit of the Dakar is alive along with the help that some of the communities that the race goes through so sorely needs.
Stage 7
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The big battle in the Mauritanian dunes will happen in three actions. It started today with a stage from Chami to Akjoujt, will continue tomorrow in a loop stage Akjoujt/Akjoujt and will end up Thursday with a stage from Akjoujt to Toueilla. A harsh battle for the leaders of the rankings to keep their places. Its actually what has happen so far and its not over yet !
Stage 8
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Rene Metge “I had announced this stage has a harsh one and I insisted on the importance of the capes. In reality, what I expected difficult was quite easy and what I thought would be easy became very difficult. The biggest issue came after CP 3. The participants had to go on a 11° capes and instead they went straight into a very difficult dune field. Some continued during 5km before noticing their error. I then decided to stop the helicopter to show them the way myself. Some managed to get back on the right track, others damaged their clutch and stayed stuck during a long moment and didn’t get back before a long time. As a matter of a fact, the ranks might have several changes.”
Stage 9
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Even if the two dune fields of the day were not easy, this second last Mauritanian stage was not as hard as René METGE had expected it. It was actually not a bad thing as a lot of participants came in really late the day before and it really affected the caravan of the SONANGOL AFRICA ECO RACE®. Except some exceptions, the majority of the 40 cars and trucks, the 20 bikes still in the race had arrived at the bivouac in the afternoon.
Stage 10
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The winners are declared, just the final ceremonial stage to Dakar to go.
The last selective sector was mainly composed by beautiful dunes and sandy tracks and was a real driving pleasure for the leaders, Jean Louis SCHLESSER, Michael PISANO and Tomas TOMECEK.
Stage 11 & finish
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Its now official, Jean Louis SCHLESSER will not try to keep his crown in 2015 on the SONANGOL AFRICA ECO RACE®. The multiple world champion announced it during the award ceremony. This is a good enough reason for him to have won the last stage of this 6th edition. So in the end SCHLESSER and MAGNALDI win a total of 5 stages whereas SABATIER and ROZAND won 4 of them and ended 3rd on this last stage.
You can find the full results of the Africa Eco Race here
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