The participants had to sit on their hands for two days. Due to a sandstorm, the Tunisia Desert Challenge could not be run. On Friday all lights were green again to close the week well and the winners in the four classes could be honored.
Bikes
In the motorcycle race, victory on the final day of the rally went to Neels Theric. He was one minute faster than Mathieu Doveze, who fought for the victory in the final standings until the last day. Nick Janssens finished in third place in the day standings with Bertrand Gavard and Alessandro Botturi in fourth and fifth place.
Botturi eventually became the overall winner of the match. At the finish, he still had an eleven-minute margin on Doveze. Thanks to his win, Theric steamed up to the podium on the last day. Janssens was in sixth place the best Belgian in the motorcycle standings.
Cars and Buggies
The buggies have dominated the Tunisia Desert Challenge this week and remained so on the eighth day. Simon Vitse again took the win, his third of the race. He won the last stage with a lead of more than seven minutes. Jerome Pelichet finished in second place with Erwin Imschoot in third place. Gintas Petrus finished fourth in the final stage on Friday ahead of Mike van Eikeren.
In the standings, the main prize also went to Vitse, who successfully defended his lead on the last day against Pelichet. In the standings he was ten minutes ahead of the experienced Pelichet. Cedric Rivet was third. The battle in the 4x4s was between Mike van Eikeren and Ronald van Loon on the last day.
Van Eikeren ran into problems on the last day, but held onto his lead. “We had a great ride today, it was a really great day,” said Van Eikeren. “It is a pity that it went wrong for a while at the end, about ten kilometers before the sandwiches. Then two shock absorbers broke off. We kept driving and at lunch it was made. We put one from right to left. The collaboration with Wouter went really well this week, we started a bit poorly. We would have preferred to be a little closer to the buggies, but we were able to make up for that later. It was great, we had a wonderful week.”
Ronald van Loon finished just behind Van Eikeren, although he did his utmost on Friday to overtake the leader in the 4x4s. “Today it was absolutely not a tour around the church, it was quite a serious test”, says Van Loon. “A lot of people went wrong in the beginning, because of the dust a lot of people went in the wrong direction. There was a castle that you had to use as a benchmark, but you hardly saw it. Fortunately we were just in time, we were able to make up for a lot of time there. Then we caught up with Mike, but the time was just not good enough. I would have liked the rally to have been a few days longer, then we could have made even more of a difference. But it was a good rally with a serious starting field.”
On the eighth plate, Philippe Lambilliotte was the best Belgian. He finished ahead of Ronald Schoolderman, Erwin Imschoot. Vincent Thijs finished in eleventh place.
Trucks
Although there were a number of good Dutch participants at the start of the trucks, the race was mainly a Belgian affair. Steven Rotsaert won the last stage ahead of Igor Bouwens and Adwin Hoondert. Bouwens was the strongest in the standings, his lead at the end of the race was about twenty minutes over Rotsaert. Hoondert took third place in the general classification, who had navigator Jasper Riezebos on board for the occasion.
“We clicked quite well right away, the trust was good”, says Riezebos about the collaboration with Hoondert. “We had a beautiful week. I had never experienced it here in Tunisia and the second day we were immediately in a mess. I was actually wrong about that, but Adwin also dares to accelerate. We got through that nicely with the coaching I was able to give every now and then. We stayed outside the tracks and looked for our own lines. Furthermore, it was all WRC and that suits Adwin, so he can seriously heister with that thing. If the trust is good, then it is good. We missed three waypoints this week, but we really couldn't find them. I look back on a very nice Tunisia Desert Challenge.”
SSV
Hans Weijs ensured the third day success for the Arcane SSV on Friday. He won the stage for overall winner Fernando Alvarez. Erik van Loon finished in third place with compatriots Kees Box and Michiel Becx close behind.
In the rankings this week there was no match for the Spaniard Alvarez. He built up a large lead in the standings and successfully defended it in the second half of the rally. Erik van Loon finished in second place ahead of Renaud Level, who completed the podium. Hugues Lacam was fourth after a good week ahead of Sylvain Mautret.
Moto & Quad
Overall Ranking - Moto & Quad
P1: #101 Alessandro Botturi “This victory, this feeling is absolutely incredible! We didn’t come here to compete for the win, we were just testing. This has been one of the hardest rallies I’ve ever been in, and it feels amazing to not only reach the finishing line but to actually win on the Yamaha Tenere 700 World Raid. The bike is a production bike, it’s heavy compared to the 450 we’ve been racing and obviously, it’s new to this. We’ve had only some minor issues but we managed to pull it all together. Honestly, people told us it wouldn’t be possible so to be here now under the arch of triumph at the Tunisia Desert Challenge as the winner feels absolutely fantastic. I want to thank Yamaha, my team and the people organizing the Tunisia Desert Challenge. It’s an amazing experience and hopefully, it’s the first adventure of many.”
Manuel Lucchese, Team Manager Yamaha Rally Raid Racing “We’re really happy to have come here ‘cause the organization of this rally proved to be top level. It was a excellent race with tricky navigation, and tough stages, so for us it was even tougher since we have a big adventure bike compared to the 450cc rally bikes. We came here with the aim of testing to find out at what stage we were with the development of the bike. We wanted to do well and have fun in the process, but winning clearly wasn’t the goal. However, Alessandro won the rally on our first attempt and we’re sure happy about it. We spent the last year developing the bike. It’s very close to the standard bike, the main differences clearly are the larger tanks because we needed a bigger fuel autonomy, the suspension, and the navigation tower required to fit instruments like the roadbook and so on, but the engine is completely standard as well as the frame. The team worked very well, and I want to thank every member of our team. We all had fun which is the most important thing and I believe that, since we were having fun and were like a good family, that’s why the result came about. Alessandro Botturi did a great job, he proved to have a lot of experience. We applied the strategy of just being consistent every day, and we won through sheer consistency without even winning one stage. As for Pol Tarrés, unfortunately had some bad luck but we’re really impressed with his performance. This is Pol’s first ever rally. Pol only saw a few roadbooks before coming here, but nevertheless he’s been very fast. Pol learned a lot from the experience gained in this rally, which will be very useful in the next adventures. We thank Yamaha Europe, without them we wouldn’t be here.”
P2: #103 Matthieu Doveze "I am a bit sad, because at one point I was close to winning this rally. Unfortunately, I finished second in the general classification of the motorcycles. I made a few small mistakes and unfortunately my strategy did not work. The Tunisia Desert Challenge is a really good rally and ideal for learning to navigate well, because it has a lot of difficult navigation sections."
P3: #122 Theric Neels "I'm really happy that I not only got to the finish line, but also won today's stage and third place in the overall standings. So it's super positive for the future."
Results - SSV
P1: #216 Hans Weijs & Tim Rietveld
P2: #210 Fernando Alvarez & Xavier Panseri
P3: #204 Erik Van Loon & Sébastien Delaunay
Overall Ranking - SSV
P1: #210 Fernando Alvarez & Xavier Panseri "Today was again difficult navigating, but I have a great co-pilot in Xavier Panseri and my team gave me a great car, and I also did my job. All in all, we made history. I am really happy because it was not easy at all, the dunes were very difficult to cross. I want to thank the organisation of the Tunisia Desert Challenge, because it was not easy and they made us work a lot."
P2: #204 Erik Van Loon & Sébastien Delaunay "Today we finished well on experience. We had lost an hour and a half earlier in the week due to a broken suspension arm. After that you have to aim as high as possible and that was second place overall."
Car & Buggy
Results - Car & Buggy
P1: #319 Simon Vitse & Frédéric Lefebvre
P2: #312 Thierry Bunel Gourdy - J.M. Polato
P3: #304 Jerome Pelichet & Pascal Larroque
Overall Ranking - Car & Buggy
P1: #319 Simon Vitse & Frédéric Lefebvre
Simon Vitse: "Today we are proud to have done this rally and to have won four of the six stages. For us, this rally was a bit decisive in the sense that we didn't know what to expect, especially for Fred who had never done any navigation. In the end, the fact that we opened the track three quarters of the rally, and even better today because we only had two bikes in front of us at the end, for Fred it was the best school. Afterwards, I really enjoyed driving the car. We didn't ride beyond our means, on the contrary, we kept some reserve. But we can see that it is paying off and that it is promising for the future, so we are very, very happy.
Frédéric Lefebvre: "We were there to learn and that's what we did for eight days so it's great. Now we have to repeat this quickly to put forward the knowledge acquired. We did a good job but rally-raid is more complicated every day and we still have a lot to learn."
P2: #304 Jérôme Pelichet & Pascal Larroque
"We did a very nice last stage, there was a bit of everything, rolling, brittle, fast, a bit of very technical track, we really liked it. For a last stage, it was a bit rough, but really beautiful. As for the rally itself, it was as good as anything the organisation can offer. In short, a very nice rally, well organised, a really great atmosphere. This year, the weather conditions were not exceptional. But in the end, everything is offset by the quality of the rally, the fun, the organisation, the tracks are very good. So for me, everything is positive. I will be back with great pleasure."
Overall Ranking - Truck
P1: #503 Igor Bouwens, Syndiely Wade, Ulrich Boerboom
"It was a bit disappointing at the beginning, but we were able to drive well towards the end. I have a good navigator and good mechanics that I am very happy with and they made sure we could win now. We have had a lot of bad luck in previous rallies which made us drop out. This is a mechanical sport and prizes are only awarded at the finish line and this time I am the lucky one."
P2: #506 Steven Rotsaert, Benny Raes, Lise Rotsaert
"This rally went well for us. We were constantly driving in second position. It's a pity it was too windy and we could only finish.”
Source Tunisia Desert Challenge /
