Dakar Classic 2023
The much-awaited day of the plunge into the Empty Quarter has arrived. After running along the border with the United Arab Emirates yesterday, today it was the turn of the Sultanate of Oman from where the riders, drivers and crews found themselves a stone’s throw away on their way to the marathon camp, a bivouac without the assistance teams. In this immense desert expanse, the rally’s competitors were offered 275 kilometres of special, with a wealth of dunes, naturally, but also gigantic chotts allowing the participants to try and hit the maximum authorised speed limits: 160 kmph for the bikes and 170 kmph for the cars.
Frédéric and Magali Barlerin had several objectives when signing up this year for their first Dakar Classic. For the biker who tried his luck without success in 2019 before completing the rally in 2021, in the unassisted biker category if you please, but with the support of his wife each day, the aim was to enjoy the race as a couple. For their Strakit buggy which took part only once in the Paris-Dakar in 1982 without finishing, the aim was to rid this monkey from its back 40 years later. On the 4th edition of the Paris-Dakar, this buggy with its Peugeot engine did not get past the rest day in Gao. Like this year, the rally included 14 stages and the end of the first week concluded after 8 of them. Yesterday, at the marathon bivouac in Haradh reserved for participants in the Dakar Classic, the Barlerins had managed to take the oldest of the historical vehicles in the 2023 caravan beyond the rest day, which was an initial relief, but the couple are not counting their chickens before they’ve hatched just yet…
