Team GWA, Paris – Dakar Rally

It’s a freezing cold December morning outside G Webb Automation offices, and the bike is set-up ready for a photo shoot for the local papers reporting my story. The article was supposed to be about the adventure of participating in a Paris to Dakar Rallye, but as the event has been postponed the newspapers (The ‘Malvern Gazette’ published 2nd January & ‘The Worcester News’ published 3rd January) have in their wisdom changed the story to my disappointment on the delay. They have however promised to do a follow-up article on the event latter in the year when we get closer to the start.

On Sunday 28th December, I drove down to visit Patsy at her home near Eastbourne to view my new rallye bike and borrow it for the photo shoot that was to take place the following day. The bike is very near to completion, but for the photo shoot has a borrowed fairing as the unit for my bike has a problem and needs to be replaced. The quality and attention to detail that Patsy has put into building this bike is remarkable, and I have every confidence that at least the bike is up to the challenge.

I have been advised today that the race has been postponed and is now re-scheduled for 24th October 2009. The reason given by the organizers is; ‘Due to the economical crisis several competitors have problems to complete their budget in the short time left before the originally planned start in March. For this reason and also to be able to keep the high level of services and safety offered to the participants of Heroes Legend with medical staff, helicopters, insurances, catering and race logistic, the organization was forced to postpone the rally to October.’ I am deeply disappointed by this news, but on the positive side it does enable me to carry out substantially more training and preparation. It has happened and we just need to carry on and deal with it!

I visited Patsy during early December and was shown my bike in its part built state. It looks absolutely fantastic, and really is starting to take shape now! The picture clearly illustrates the two forward mounted fuel tanks and the bracket mounted on the steering head that will take the navigation equipment and the powerful twin xenon headlight system. At this point, the bike is still scheduled for completion by Christmas in time for a press release on the 29th December.

Welcome to the new Team GWA blog site. This site will provide information about the Team GWA Paris to Dakar rally preparations.