Saturday 7th of January 2012, Bikes.
When he set off into the special this morning Norbert Dubois knew that it was his last chance to beat Oscar Polli, but with the hour and eight minutes between them he knew it would take a small miracle. He gave it maximum attack, as the big fall he had is testament to, but in the end he could only take back 41 minutes from the Italian. Polli didn't need to push today and he didn't, preferring instead to conserve his lead.
Second today was Xavier Moreau who consolidated his third place on the podium and assured victory in the Class 450, although he still regretted that he didn't win a stage this year.

Cars
In the car category, the stage was a rather complicated one. The first dunes, 17km in were particularly soft and at one point 14 cars were stuck, leader Jean Louis Schlesser among them. But that wasn't the most serious thing tat happened to the buggy driver today. Coming over one dune he found the Overdrive Amarok of Jacky Loomans and the two collided. However both managed to continue and it was Loomans who went on to win the stage, which is a very well deserved victory for the
second overall placed driver. A superb third in class went to the MD Rally Megane of Jean Noël Julien and Frédéric Vivier ahead of the Tunisian Toyota of Salim Kamoun.

Trucs
This year it was the heavyweights who were the stars as the trucks of Tomas Tomecek and Elisabete Jacinto have been prominent at the top of the overall leader board since the start, Tomecek finishes second behind Jean Louis Schlesser and wins the truck category for the second consecutive year in his TATRA ahead of the Portuguese MAN of Jacinto, who finished 4th overall. But apart from the results it was the congratulations between the drivers and co-drivers that was important and it reflected the general atmosphere of sharing a passion that prevailed on this year's Sonangol Africa Eco Race.

Friday 6th of January 2012.
Today, competitors had no rush to complete the 370 km road section and arrived relaxed at the bivouac in Tenadi, a village a hundred miles south east of Nouakchott, on the road leading to Nema and called "The Road of Hope." The wind was still strong and the temperature was close to 30 degrees, but they were able to take a nap in the traditional African tents... or start preparing tomorrow's roadbook...

It was the 4-wheeled categories that suffered most in the last couple of days and for their teams there was more activity in the camp fixing the cars that had been damaged in the hard dunes.
Before the penultimate 280km stage from Tenadi to Kebemer the results from yesterday still stand, with Italian Oscar Polli leading overall in the bikes with an hour over Frenchman Norbert Dubois, both on KTM 690s. The top three is completed by Xavier Moreau riding a KTM 450.The Frenchman leads the way in the 450 class ahead of the Yamaha rider Thierry Hervé and Christophe Conreaux on a Honda.

In the car class, Jean Louis Schlesser, triple winner of the event, together with Cyril Esquirol, is on track to win again with more than four hours advantage over Jacky Loomans and Frits Driesmans, while Salim and Kamoun and Sofiane Driss occupy third place, almost eight and a half hours behind.

The trucks have never been better placed on a rally as Tomas Tomecek and Vojtech Moravek and occupy second place overall while Elizabeth Jacinto, Jose Marques and Marco Cochinho are fourth. For now, the Czech Tatra has a 1 hour 20 minute lead over the MAN while the Belgians Noël Essers, Marc Lauwers and Peter Belmans are ranked third.
However, dunes still feature strongly in the next stages and José Maria Servia who has just completed the reconnaissance of the last stage to Lac Rose, reports that the sand is very soft there, which could still effect the results.
And while the competitors are out racing on the track, the organization truck of the Sonangol Africa Eco Race will deliver about one ton of medical equipment to the military hospital in Nouakchott, comprised of crutches, walkers, splints, etc... These supplies were kindly donated by the Nord Sud Handicap and the Sports Club of Defense in Paris.

Thursday 5th of January 2012
"The route of the day will include some parts of fairly easy off-piste driving. But there will be 45 km of really hard going," Rene Metge already knew that competitors would curse him. "A part is a mixture of dunes and camel grass where you have to be patient and careful not to get stuck. After this comes the most difficult test..." Such was the description of the route yesterday, between Boulanouar Akjoujt. Competitors of this fourth edition of the Sonagol Africa Eco Race were therefore warned of what awaited them. However, with the wind blowing hard now making conditions even harder two thirds of the rally ended up trapped in the 45 km long Erg of Akchar. A few competitors managed to emerge from the stage, but others were stuck there for the whole night. Participants who made it back to camp are permitted by the rules to continue, albeit with a penalty.

The motorcycle category also had its share of surprises today and also the overall ranking is completely rearranged. Oscar Polli who was in a racing mood this morning, but lost a lot of time looking for the right track near CP2... whereas Norbert Dubois immediately found the right way with the result that the Frenchman takes 55 minutes from the Italian and now has nearly 8 minutes of a lead... so anything can happen in the last three stages...
Behind, the exploits of Thierry Hervé riding his Yamaha 450 WRF continue to impress his peers with 2nd on the stage, ahead of Xavier Moreau, Oscar Polli in 4th, while Christophe Conreaux and Bertrand Besse finished the stage in fifth and sixth position.

Still the leader even after problems today looking for the right track is Jean Louis Schlesser. Always the gentleman he congratulated the performance of Elisabete and also that of GillesCotel and Hervé Florin, fifth in their Cotel Buggy and that of Joël Olivan et Patrick Colleie, 6th in their Toyota. It was a bad day for the Tunisians Salim Kamoun and Sofiane Driss who lost over an hour. For their victory in the class for vehicles with two solid axles they won a set of Cooper tires and retain fifth place overall.

The 7th stage, a 412 km loop around Akjoujt started this morning with teh remaining 8 motorcycles and 29 cars. It wasn't suposed to be a particularly difficult day, but unfortunately the strong wind made it hard straight away. On one had the wind cleared the clouds of dust from the driver in front, but on the other it blew the sand over the dunes making it very hard to judge them correctly and this led to a directional error by competitors who found themselves in dunes that were extremely hard to pass. In response, the race director decided to shorten the stage and fix the results as they were at CP2... and this changed the outlook of the leaderboard completely as the best time at that point was held by Elisabete Jacinto in her MAN truck, which is only the 2nd time in the history of the race that a truck has beaten the cars. Second place is also a surprise with Michel Barrere Turon and Didier Haquette in their CRD Buggy, especially as they only got back to te camp at midnight last night. They were 10 minutes ahead of the Tatra of Tomas Tomecek who suddenly, after clutch problems for the Pick Up of Jacky Loomans, now occupies second place overall.

Wednesday 4th of January 2012
One thing is certain, this 6th stage of the Sonangol Africa Eco Race between Boulanouar and Akjoujt, will be remembered by competitors of this fourth edition. Once again Jean Louis Schlesser in the car category and Oscar Polli in the bikes were the best, while in the truck class, Tomas Tomecek won by finishing second overall. But for many competitors, this 425 km long special has turned into an endless session of shovelling sand.

On two wheels, Oscar Polli was once again the hero of the bike category of the Sonangol Africa Eco Race but making a faultless stage on his KTM 690 and at the stage finish was obviously delighted to have widened the gap with Norbert Dubois, his closest opponent. But Dubois himself was happy with 2nd 32'01'' behind Polli but nearly an hour ahead of Xavier Moreau, whose "little" KTM 450 suffered in the sand.
Thierry Hervé did really well again today in his first major African rally. On his Yamaha 450 WRFhe finished fourth on the stage, 1:43 behind the winner. Overall Oscar Polli now has a little over an hour advantage over Norbert Dubois

Cars
When he crossed the finish line, ten kilometres from the bivouac in Akjoujt, a village 300 km east of Nouakchott, Jean Louis Schlesser looked tired. After more than 6 hours of struggling to get his Sonangol Schlesser Buggy through the particularly soft white dunes his fatigue was warranted. Race Director René Metge said that this stage would be hard and he was right as it was two hours after Schlesser had passed that the next competitor came into sight. Probably no one would have guessed that it would be Erwin Imschoot and Werner Zoetaert in their T2 land Cruiser, especially after they barrel-rolled it 5 times a few days ago. Four-wheel drive was the order of the day today as third were the Tunisians Salim Kamoun and Driss Sofian in their Toyota LRM 79, a pick-up used by the armies of the Maghreb countries to operate in the desert. The same was for the Bowler of Eric Radet and Thierry Coste were came in just ahead of the Russian buggy of Sergey Savenko and Denis Maltsev. Another notable performance came from the MD Rallye Megane of Jean Noël Julien and Frédéric Vivier.

Monday 2nd of January 2012
On the eve of the rest day in Dakhla, the last stage held in Morocco could have thrown up some surprises, but despite the navigation being very complicated it seems the co-drivers listened well to Rene Metge's briefing and there were no major incidents on the 348km stage. So it is a relaxed atmosphere tonight in the camp located on a cliff overlooking the Atlantic Ocean.

In the motorcycle category, Oscar Polli, the overall leader, took another stage victory, but the Italian came very close to the disaster as at km161 he and André Lenoble collided. One was checking the GPS and the other just didn't see... and they fell heavily. Fortunately though, the damage was limited to a bruise on Polli's hip and broken instruments on Lenoble's bike. Oscar Polli was able to get back on track and was accompanied over the line by Xavier Moreau. Behind, although running without GPS and therefore having to depend only on the roadbook Joseph Palacios took a fine 3rd place, just over 3 minutes behind Moreau. However concerns remain, however, to Norbert Dubois who is suffering from a bad stomach bug and struggled through more than half an hour behind Polli. Still, he was pleased to have finished the stage and is now looking forward to hunting down his rival in the Mauritanian stages.

Cars
In the car class, Jean Louis Schlesser and Cyril Esquirol once again won the stage, although only 1'27'' ahead of the MD Rallye Buggy of Regis Delahaye and Konstantin Zhitlov after a 'nice fight'. Separated by 11'04'' the two buggies seem to have control over the race as for the second stage running Jacky Loomans and Frits Driesmans had problems in their Overdrive Amarok. After hitting a rock and then getting a puncture they finished only 9th and are now over an hour behind the leaders. Performance of the day goes to Philippe Porcheron and Cedric Rivet in their MD Rallye Buggy, and this even after stopping for 10 minutes to help the Fromont family. Hubert Auriol and Jean Paul Forthomme were fifth in their W01 Buggy and it was a day to remember as it was the first stage so far that they completed without having problems! Hubert "The African" is now in 16th position overall.

Trucks
The honking of the horn and the big smile on Elisabete Jacinto's face as she got out of her MAN told the story of her day as she took 13 minutes back from the TATRA of Tomas Tomecek and Vojtech Moraveck. Elisabetta gave credit to her navigator José Marques who followed the route perfectly and returned them to withing 25 minutes of the leader. The third truck to finish was the MAN of Belgians Noël Essers, Marc Lauwers and Peter Belmans, who are in 3rd overall.

Sunday 1st of January 2012
Norbert Dubois got to the finish furious with himself for making a navigation error that cost him more than 40 minutes... but luckily he didn't loose out in the overall standings as his rival Oscar Polli followed him down the wrong track. As a result, the error of the two race leaders allowed some less prominent riders to take centre stage. First was André Lenoble, who explained that his Yamaha 450 WRF runs on Bio Ethanol and is equipped with photovoltaic cells, so a green bike on the top step today. Xavier Moreau also made a slight navigational mistake and added a dozen miles to his journey, but still got to the end in 2nd, while after a tough day yesterday Nimes Joseph Palacios finished third, 19'27'' behind the leader. Despite their difficulties Dubois and Polli still retain the top two places overall.

Cars
Jean Louis Schlesser was all smiles as he got out of his Sonangol Schlesser Buggy as he started the year with an easy win and has noticed an improvement with his new co-driver Cyril Esquirol. The only regret was not being able to get passed the MD Buggy Rally of Régis Delahaye, which he caught 80km before the finish.

Régis Delahaye was pleased with his second place and with the route that Rene Metge had laid out. In contrast though, in only sixth place, Jacky Loomans explained his below-par performance was due to the lack of grip in the tires of his Pick Up Overdrive. But as is often the case, the misfortune of one is he happiness of others and the Russians Sergey Savenko and Denis Maltsev took third in their Acyra Diesel Buggy, ahead of the CRD of Turron-Michel Barrere and Didier Haquette.

Today also saw a strong performance from the Tunisians Salim Kamoun and Sofiane Driss. Finishing in 18th place they won the class for vehicles with 2 solid axles. First in the T2 class for production based cars are Belgians Gregoor Bouwens and Hans de Pauw in their Land Cruiser while Thierry Maurin and Daniel Vermeloux took the T3 SSV class honours in their new Polaris RZR 900.

Trucks
In the truck class, first to the finish line was Elisabete Jacinto at the wheel of her MAN who was pleased to put yesterday's troubles behind her. The Portugese driver with her two co-drivers José Marques and Marco Cochinho caught up with the TATRA of Tomas Tomecek and Vojtech Moravek... but it took nearly 100km before they could find a way past. The Czechs though still lead the heavy-wieght class and are in 4th overall.

Saturday 31st of December 2011
In last night's briefing Rene Metge said that the first part of today's stage from Mhamid to Assa would be hard to negotiate and he was right as apart fro the first three crews of the bike and car classes most people had difficulties in the first 25km, in the Erg Chegaga. The result is that Oscar Polli and Régis Delahaye both have two new stage wins, while Tomas Tomecek dominated the truck class.
Winner of yesterday's stage, Oscar Polli opened the stage and during the whole 414km taht took 6 ½ hours, he never saw another rider! He lost about 5 minutes with a small error coming out of Lake Iriki, but that didn't preventing him taking a second consecutive victory, some 10 minutes ahead of Norbert Dubois who admitted to struggling for pace across the dunes and dropped his KTM 600 nearly a dozen times.

Flying in the dunes was Xavier Moreau on a 'small' KTM 450, who managed to catch up to Dubois and ride in tandem with him, until a big navigation mistake caused him to drop nearly an hour. Nice riding of the two Yamahas enabled Thierry Hervé and Andre Lenoble to take 4th and 5th.

CARS
If everything went relatively well for bikers, it is not quite the same in the car class as there were big differences in the times at the end of today's special and it was the famous Erg Chegaga taht caused the problems. At the head of the field Régis Delahaye caught up with Jean-Louis Schlesser who was opening the course through the dunes, but a small crash gave the advantage back to the Sonangol Schlesser Buggy ahead of the Overdrive Pick Up of Jacky Loomans. But then 'The Boss' suffered a puncture giving Loomans the lead... but it didn't last long as in the space of 10km he got 2 punctures... which let Régis Delahaye through to take a gifted win, 3'20'' to Loomans and 4'34'' to Schlesser, but Schlesser still heads the overall rankings.
Performance of the day goes to the crew of Michel Barrere and Didier Haquette Turon, who were fourth in their CRD Buggy, some 30 minutes of the Russian team of Sergey Savenko and Denis Maltsev. In the SSV group the French crew of Thierry Morin and Daniel Vermeloux in their Polaris RZR 900 entered the top 20 today. In the T2 class Werner Erwin Imschoot Zoetaert their Toyota lead the dance in the eighth position overall.

trucks
Again, with the appearance of the first dunes, the truck category has seen some changes with the Czechs Tomas Tomecek and Vojtech Moraveck taking the lead after a faultless drive. Fifth overall was the result, but more importantly he was 53 minutes ahead of the MAN of Elisabete Jacinto who had a puncture in the first kilometre. The two trucks now occupy fourth and fifth places overall in the provisional standings.
After a night of New Year's Eve spent in the Assa bivouac with a temperature much milder than the past couple of nights and dinner complemented by a glass of champagne, the competitors will set off at dawn towards Sakn As in the south of Morocco. However, René Metge was "lenient" with participants for te start of the New Year, as this is the shortest stage of Sonangol Africa Eco Race...
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Transfer : 8 km - Special Stage : 375 km, JEAN-LOUIS SCHLESSER TAKES CONTROL !
Friday, December 30, 2011.
The second special section of the Sonangol Africa Eco Race took competitors to Mhamid with 8km of liaison and 375km of timed route. Less intense than yesterday and made up of actually tracks crews were led to the first dunes. It was fertile ground for Jean-Louis Schlesser who made dust in the car class while Elisabete Jacinto took the honours for the trucks and Italian Oscar Polli came home first in the two wheel category.
After a tough first day in Morocco everyone managed to reach the camp of Tarda this morning. Some took advantage of the big fire in the center of the camp to get warm as the temperature was well below zero, others recovered from the day's stage in their tents. The philosophy of the Sonangol Africa Eco Race allows those who failed one day to start the next, albeit with a penalty and so only one bike and two trucks are unable to continue.

Winner of the first stage, Norbert Dubois was the first rider to set off at 7.32 sharp. Two minutes later Oscar Polli started in an ideal position, two minutes behind and concentrated on following his rival rather than opening the route, the result being that there was only a small gap between the two KTM690 riders. And there is only a small gap now in the general classification with Norbert Dubois ahead by only 3 seconds. Again, third on the stage and third overall is Xavier Moreau on his KTM450.
The revelation of this early part of the event come from Joseph Palacios who is on his first rally in Africa but is riding his KTM 690 with ease. As for Pascal Delesque, the only quad rider in the rally had to be brought to camp on the back of th sweeper truck yesterday, but this morning he set off again full of enthusiasm.

In the car category, Jean-Louis Schlesser considered the second stage ideal for his Sonangol Schlesser Buggy. The three-time winner of the event was right since he won by over 18 minutes. Cyril Esquirol getting used to his new environment was instrumental in helping steer Jean-Louis through the many turns, which means that Schlesser now takes command of the event. Behind the blue buggy was Jacky Loomans who drove perfectly on the tricky Morrocan tracks, ahead of Régis Delahaye who suffered a puncture and a small navigational error. However, in the overall classification, the MD Buggy Rally retains second place at 10'22''l behind the leader while Jacky Loomans is ideally placed third. A good performance today came from the Fromont family, François Yves father and son. The French placed their Tarek Buggy TDI in fourth, just ahead of the magnificent Bowler of Vincent Demonceaux and José Castan, who are fourth overall.

Finally, in the truck class, Elisabete Jacinto won for the second day in succession and finished 6th overall. Second again went to Tomas Tomecek, 10 minutes behind. However the soft sands of Mauritania will be in the TATRA's advantage.
On the menu for the last day of 2012 is a 414km stage in southern Morroco with all the difficulties of the African roads. But once at camp a party will be waiting for the convoy!

Jueves, 29 de diciembre 2011
Liaison: 239.40 km – SS: 276, 90 km – Liaison: 106 km.
After a 1000km tarmac liaison section from St-Cyprien to Almeria the competitors of the Africa Eco Race boarded a ferry which docked in the Moroccan port of Nador at 5am this morning. Straight away the organisers, consisting of 120 people and 40 set off to open the first stage, 622 km, including 277 km of special. The route headed south on alternating sides of the main road following a tough route designed to showcase the best of the driver's and co-driver's abilities, a technical track to drive and many changes of direction to test the navigator... although Rene Metge considers today's action to be just a warm up!
KTM 690 No.101 lost time today and finished second behind Frenchman Norbert Dubois, also on a 'big' KTM. The third biker to cross the finish line in Talhari was Xavier Moreau on his KTM 450, but is over 25 minutes behind the day's winner.

In the car class Jean-Louis Schlesser and his new co-driver Cyril Esquirol the triple World Enduro Champion, had his baptism of fire in the co-driver's seat by opening today's stage.
The Schlesser Sonangol Buggy took second today, beaten by 12 minutes by the Franco-Russian crew of Régis Delahaye and Konstantin Zhiltsov. Schlesser and Esquirol are going to have to learn fast how to work together!
Behind them in 3rd 3'54'' back, is the team Overdrive Pickup of Jacques Loomans and Frits Driesmans.

In the truck category, Elisabete Jacinto, with José Marques and Marco Cochinho, started on the attack in the Portuguese MAN taking 5º overall. The battle of the giants looks set to be intense as they were only just a little more than two minutes ahead of the Czech TATRA of Tomas Tomecek and Moravek Vojtech.
And so it was an exciting first step... but also a hard one. Stéphane Henrard and his new Beetle didn't make it to the end and Egyptian Abdel Hamid Abouyoussef experienced mechanical problems. Also Hubert Auriol, "the African" drowned his buggy in a deep river.
Tomorrow, after a night in the bivouac situated on plateau where the temperature should drop below zero the second special stage of the Sonangol Africa Eco Race will take the competitors Mhamid with a special of 375 km... although it is promised to be 'less challenging'.