The 2024 edition of the Morocco Desert Challenge is just around the corner and the Marc Bourgeois-led Ténéré Yamaha Rally Team will be there in full force, along with a group of adventurous Ténéré Spirit Experience riders. But what is the history of this prestigious race and how did it become the awesome event it is today?
The organisers of the Rally-Raid event hosted their first rally in March of 2008: with the Libya Desert Challenge. There were some 50 pioneering participants, with the likes of Roberto Musi, Hubert Deltrieu, Henk Knuiman, Peter Merceij, Marco Piana and Abdelhamid ‘Mido’ Abouyoussef writing the first chapter of the race’s history that year.
From a small start to one of the world’s biggest rallies
The following year the number of competitors more than doubled to 110 and by 2010 there were 160 riders, drivers, co-drivers and mechanics ready to take part. However, just weeks before the race was due to start Libya close its borders to visitors from many European (Schengen) nations. A massive effort was made by the organisers to move the rally to Tunisia where it was successfully held.
The race returned to Libya in 2012 after postponement in 2011 due to the ‘Arab Spring’, with the routes designed by incoming race director Jean-Claude Kaket and more than 180 competitors and mechanics making it a marvellous competition.
The next year – 2013 – the wonderful landscapes and tracks of Morocco also became home to the race and the love affair has continued from there. Entries soared in 2014 as more than 300 adventurers battled over epic dunes, unspoilt beaches, mountain tracks and expansive deserts.
A continually improving Rally-Raid
The professionalization of the event increased again in 2015, with the race that year finishing in the stunning city of Marrakesh, before the first coast-to-coast edition of the race in 2016, which commenced on the Atlantic coastline and concluded on the shores of the Mediterranean.
Then 2017 was a landmark year, with the race taking on its current name: the Morocco Desert Challenge. That year the liaisons were absent from the routes, meaning the special stages started and finished in the bivouac (travelling camp), which by this time had grown to host more than 700 people. The 10th staging of the event took place in 2018 and by the following year the Morocco Desert Challenge boasted an entry list of over 1000, plus more than 200 support staff.
After postponements due to Covid in 2020 and 2021, the race was back on in 2022. It was hosted that year as the Tunisia Desert Challenge and it was a huge success story for Yamaha.
Indeed Yamaha Ténéré World Raid Team’s Alessandro Botturi achieved a historic victory, the first for a production bike – the GYTR-kitted Yamaha Ténéré 700 World Raid – against its prototype rivals. Botturi’s teammate Pol Tarres demonstrated his potential as he charged to ninth during the final stage, to end his debut Rally Raid event in a respectable 30th overall.
The magical Morocco Desert Challenge
The Morocco Desert Challenge made a magical comeback to the racing calendar in 2023 and it was a hugely popular event, with over 300 vehicles competing and more than 1300 people present in the bivouac.
From the perspective of the Yamaha Ténéré World Raid Team the 2023 Morocco Desert Challenge was another great success, with Tarrés finishing third overall in just his third rally, whilst his teammate Rodney Faggotter was fourth. Meanwhile the pair secured the 1-2 in the Big Bike category (600cc and above) on their Ténéré 700 World Raid machines.
Morocco Desert Challenge organiser Gert Duson describes the essence of the event, saying, “Team spirit and camaraderie are values which are extremely important to us. It’s the amateurs and hobby riders who made our rally big and the atmosphere that comes with it, these are things we would like to keep.”
A new coast to coast route for 2024
The Morocco Desert Challenge 2024 will see the competitors ride from Agadir to Saïdia over a new “coast to coast” route of around 3000 kms. They will be accompanied by a group of determined Ténéré Spirit Experience riders along the way, with those customers getting a unique taste of total immersion in Rally-Raid with full support from the Ténéré Yamaha Rally Team, in terms of rider coaching, elite bike preparation and world class hospitality.
Fans can keep up-to-date with Yamaha’s progress at the Morocco Desert Challenge on yamaha-racing.com and there will be exclusive content from the race on the Ténéré Spirit Experience social media channels.
