Team GWA, Paris – Dakar Rally

I had originally planned to be competing in this event, but my injury put a stop to all that! I therefore volunteered to help Patsy Quick and Desert Rose Racing who had entered Patsy, Zippy (Clive Town), Robert Law and Tamsin Jones in the 24 hour marathon class. We also were supporting Bernie & Jenny Wright with their respective team mates in the 12 hour 2 member teams and Andrew Neri in the 6 hour marathon class. This is the first time that this event, or any other event for that matter has run a 24 hour race in this country and we were all filled with in-trepidation on how the race would unfold. The 24 hour class started at 7pm on the Saturday evening just as the light was fading. The circuit was reduced to approximately 8 miles for the first 11 hours and then opened up to around 15 miles long at 6am on the Sunday morning. Early on Sunday we started to get some rain which turned in to a dense mist above the course making conditions tricky to say the least. Unfortunately, Zippy was ‘T’ boned by another bike while on the first lap and sustained a foot injury, but being full of grit and determination it did not stop him until around 3am Sunday morning when the pain became too much to bear. It latter turned out that Zippy’s foot was in fact broken and it was incredible that he had continued riding for as long as he did, at the time he retired he had already completed 21 laps and was well up the front end of the pack. We were fortunate to have 2009 Dakar finisher Mike Shepperd on hand who in his professional role of race horse vet administered first aid to Zippy’s foot.

With the exception of Zippy’s injury, the team had an excellent result: Patsy finished 3rd in the Veteran Class, Tamsin was 1st in Clubman class and also the fastest overall female entry, Robert Law was 2nd in the Clubman class. Very well done to them all!!