‘I need number one’, said Nasser Al-Attiyah last year at the start of the Pharaons Rally. He lost in the first stage, and this year there is only one stage between him and the victory. The route to Caïro is rough, the tension is high and we expect fireworks on the stage tomorrow as the teams try to make the most out of this years’ race.
Through the dunes, on roadbook. With dune after dune, beautiful corridors bringing speed into the dune driving, canyons and desert in alternating colors with black, yellow and white sand todays stage was for the lovers of Egyptian landscape. Sitting at one of the highest dunes in the area we saw the bikes, cars and trucks approach from 20-30 km away, as small clouds of dust against the backdrop of a beautiful mountain range
Chavo Salvatierra was the first to pass, racing at high speed. His lead was incredible, and only matched by Nasser Al-Attiyah and Matthieu Baumel who managed to win todays car category. As todays stage was cancelled it was replaced by the second stage of the Pharaons Rally, so the teams had a good preparation for today. Adam Malysz had bad luck; at km 80 he rolled his Mini and he was brought back to the camp by Tomas Tomecek, with the big Tatra 815 6×6 sweeper truck. Mohamed Abu Issi secured his lead and only has to finish to win the quad category. He has proven himself on the long stages of the Pharaons Rally.
Tomorrow at the finish in Cairo there will also be a podium for the truck category, a novelty as after 9 years trucks are back in an FIA Worldcup event. ‘We have the ‘premiere’ with two trucks in the Pharaons,’ says organizer Mahmoud Nour el Din, and he expects to see more entries in this category in the next edition. ‘We put a lot of work in this event and we improve what we can.’ Running since 1982 the Pharaons Rally is the oldest rallyraid in the world still being organised in its original form. ‘We are the only no-mans-land and roadbook style desert rallyraid in the Worldcup, where you have to do over 1500 kilometers of special stage through unpopulated and empty desert. No people, no civilisation, only you and the roadbook.’
As the cars in the Worldcup get faster and faster the room for error has disappeared. Adam Malysz finds out when he crashes his car, hitting a stone at high speed ‘That’s part of racing,’ responds the team. Yazeed loses a little bit of time every day and he has to work tomorrow for the podium. The Egyptian Sitra team in the yellow Desert Warrior has a different goal: to reach the finish. ‘We came here to finish and we will hopefully. But suddenly we find ourselves to be the only Egyptian team left in the race. Today we had a puncture, but we did not use another spare part to keep the car in condition.’
The finish at the Pyramids after a long race is at the pyramids in Cairo, a classic place with all the rallyraid history. But first the last stage has to be conquered!
Story and photo’s: Niels Hatzmann Dutch Rally Press