With over 50 percent more participants -compared to last year- on the starting list, and even doubling the number of side-by-sides, the Morocco Desert Challenge 2019 breaks all records. On Thursday 11thApril nearly 300 rally-raid vehicles, 210 assistance trucks and cars and 1300 people will be at the start the 11th edition of the MDC which has become the second largest cross-country event in the world.
In the truck category, the Morocco Desert Challenge is even the largest, with 35 race trucks. « We are proud to say that there are numerous top teams at the start, » says MDC director Gert Duson. “Sounding names such as MAZ, The Iveco’s of Team De Rooy and Gregoor, The MAN’s of Veka, the Renaults of Mammoet and Riwald and the Scania’s of DakarSpeed, Versteijnen Truck Racing and Miklos Kovaks. Moreover, all of them are pure racing trucks, so no fast assistance trucks with pink stickers or something similar. It promises to be a fantastic battle of a very high standard. »
The other categories are nothing less, with around 80 cars, over 70 motorbikes and quads and more than 60 SSV’s. In these classes, too, many well-known names of international standard are coming to the start, including top 10 Dakar finishers such as Joan Pedrero in the motorbikes and Erik van Loon, Paulo Ferreira, Hennie De Klerk, Thomas Bell and Fernando Alvarez in the cars. « Despite the fact that more and more top drivers find their way to MDC, the traditional, friendly spirit is maintained, » says Duson. “Morocco Desert Challenge is and remains an amateur rally. This can be seen from, for example, the large number of registrations with the side-by-sides. In this low-threshold category with a large fun factor, we see a doubling of the number of participants, from 28 registrations last year to 62 in this edition.”
The program that the participants are presented with contains eight challenging stages, starting in Agadir, where the scrutineering will be held on April 11 and 12. Navigation has an even more important role in this eleventh edition. « Speed alone is not enough, » says Duson. “The navigation will demand a lot from the participants and will lower the speed dramatically in some parts.
The official starting signal for the race will be given on Saturday April 13, on the now traditional Plage Blanche on the Atlantic coast. The route that sports director Jean-Claude Kaket has made leads the participants through the Moroccan Sahara in the deep south and the breath-taking dune areas in the east of Morocco to the north where on April 20 the finish will be in Saïdia at the Mediterranean coast. “It is literally coast-to-coast, almost 2500 kilometres of special stages -with 0 km liaison- through all the variations in landscapes that Morocco has to offer. There is a completely new route, with which we can please both new and regular participants and to both top riders and the people for whom the Morocco Desert Challenge is a holiday, because once again: MDC is and remains an amateur rally in which friendliness and a good atmosphere are as important as the race itself. »
Rally Raid Spirit 