2023-12-22 04:19:00
the essentials After two participations in the Dakar, including a first in 2022 which ended in a fall and an abandonment, Kevin Durand is preparing this time to take the start of the Africa Eco Race, still on the handlebars of his Honda .
“When you are passionate regarding rally raids, you have two big desires, two dreams: to participate in the Dakar and the Africa Eco Race,” explains Kevin Durand, who will be the only representative in the race. A race that takes up the main lines of the first Paris Dakar. “We are leaving from France”, specifies Durand. The final checks take place in Menton on December 29 and departure will be given in Monaco the next day, at 7 p.m., before boarding in Sète on the 31st, at the end of a long night connection. After a New Year’s Eve on the boat, the pilots will disembark in Morocco to set off from Nador on January 2. Then, the approximately 150 competitors, motorcycles, cars, and trucks will pass through Mauritania and Senegal, where the finish of the 12th and final stage will be contested on January 14 on the legendary Lac Rose beach in Dakar, as during many African editions of Paris Dakar.
On the Dakar, “everything is regulated, while on the Eco Race, it’s much freer”
With nearly 6,000 km including 4,000 of which are special, some being more than 400 kilometers long, the Africa Eco Race has nothing to envy of the Dakar. “These are two completely different events, the Dakar is a juggernaut where everything is regulated and structured whereas in the Eco Race, it is much freer.” For example, the bivouacs are chosen far from the towns and tarmacs of airport, the competitors find themselves in the middle of the desert, far from everything and left to their own devices, while being followed live with satellite means for security reasons.
The event was created in 2009 at the request of African countries, joined by drivers like Hubert Auriol, René Metge and Jean Louis Schlesser, determined to perpetuate the spirit of Thierry Sabine, the creator of the Paris Dakar.
For the Baraqueville resident who will be at the start at the wheel of his Honda 450, accompanied by the Team RS motorcycle for assistance, the ambition is clear: “My objective will be to cross the finish line on the legendary Lac Rose beach at Senegal like in the good old days of the Paris Dakar. I don’t care regarding the ranking. If I had wanted to play it, I would have stopped a long time ago. For me, the main thing is to ride in Africa on tracks that made me dream when I was young and to have fun.” But what will be left for Kevin Durand when he has realized his second dream? “When you’ve caught the rally-raid bug, you don’t lose it. And all the enthusiasts agree with that. I don’t know yet, but I think that followingwards I’ll probably alternate between the Dakar and the Eco Race because I have no intention of stopping”, adds the man who prepared himself physically and mentally in the same way as for the Dakar. “It worked well for me last year, so…”
For the record, this 15th edition will mark the return of Porsche to Africa, with 6 vehicles. The Stuttgart firm won the Paris Dakar with Frenchman René Metge as driver, in 1984 and 1986. As for the American brand Harley Davidson, it will take advantage of this 2024 edition to make its first official laps.
Kevin Durand from Aveyron will wear bib number 143 in the Africa Eco Race.
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