Few participating cars but it must be taken into account that everything has been organized in just two months, with the people of Fenek Raid as parents of the child.
Location of wpt’s and navigation have been the basis of this test, together with the possibility of tracking the competitors by other cars, along the same routes as them and parallel intersection tracks which makes the route more enjoyable, constantly finding the participants wrapped in the warmth of the public, and constantly having the organization absolute control at all times of each of the participants and followers, also having two cars at the end of the stage, doing exactly the entire route, one of them being the fast assistance car with a beautiful Patrol GR very well equipped and with two mechanics from the Tenere company which in terms of safety is very important, since it must be taken into account that this type of tests are totally amateur and this one in particular is focused on all types of participants, From the most expert to the most novices, they have their chances, above all, to have fun and to experience first-hand the spirit of authentic adventure combined with the incentive of competition.
The first stage started with a loop from the Faouar area heading Southeast locating wpt’s to finish in Douz, with a total tie between all the participants taking the lead Joan Lario and Joan Lario followed by Juan Jiménez and Dani Jimenez, both with FJ’s taking a few kilometers from their rivals, these not being very important since the Km ́s would only act in case of a tie, something very difficult to happen.
The second stage with a similar route and also the location of wpt’s, started from Es Sabria but this time further north and with a course also more to the east took us again to Douz, this time being the team formed by Juan Pedro Cuadrado and Natalia Pérez with their effective HDJ 80 they cut distances followed very closely by Raul Lozano and Esther Delgado at the controls of a KDJ 120 thus putting all the meat on the grill, and all the alarms of the rest of the participants went off.
The third stage would be a head-to-head between Juan Pedro Cuadrado, Raul Lozano and Joan Lario that penalized 10 very important points, for a calculation error at the entrance of the time control. It departed from Douz in a south-easterly direction to Ksar Ghilane.
Every day the difficulty increased considerably and the ranking became more adjusted.
The fourth stage ran through impressive dune ridges, with constant counter-dunes to the south of Ksar Ghilane, with very complicated wp’s, but again there was a tie between all the participants which kept Joan Lario as leader for the moment followed very close by Juan Pedro Cuadrado and Raúl Lozano.
The fifth and last stage would be the final one, in an area of soft sand north of Ksar Ghilane and some very technical dune ridges that a priori, were going to bring out the quintessence of each of the participants, together with the help of mother nature with a significant sandstorm which gave the final chest to each of them. What more could you ask for?
Again it was a head-to-head between the first three classified with Joan Lario finally taking the cat to the water, followed by Juan Pedro Cuadrado in second place and Raúl Lozano in third position.
It is worth highlighting the performance of Jordi Fornons and Anna Mas with their Hilux that just 11 kms from the end had a mechanical problem, which forced them to spend the night in the dunes, shielded by two cars of the organization.
The final classification in this first edition of the Desert Raid was commanded by Joan Lario and his FJ Cruiser, not an easy victory, which if anything has been characterized by the high level of its participants, the fantastic conditions of the arena and the unbeatable and impeccable organization of it.
Well, this is how this fantastic edition ends, which will surely mark a before and after in the world of 4×4 orienteering competitions.
Joan Lario
Pilot
