Budapest-Bamako Rally: Budapest-Bamako: Invadors hit Monte Carlo

From Sunday to Tuesday – the participants have three days to complete the super marathon stage between Brescia in Italy and Merzouga in Morocco – because on Wednesday morning the real rally starts there! But also on their way to Southern Spain the crews had some tasks to solve. For the Tourist category it was a bit easier, they had only two official stops before Morocco. 

With the ferry cruise from Almeria (Spain) to Nador (Morocco) 2.740 kilometres had to be covered – under the given circumstances a challenge even for the most experienced teams! Although the transfer was/is only transfer, there was a little ’trick’ in the route to make their lives harder. Instead of using the wonderful seaside motorway from Genua to Nizza the competirors had to choose a passage through the Alps to solve a task. But, as organiser Andrew Szabó Gál warned in the first video, this could be a problem... 

And, of course, it was – because of the snow. “It’s possible that because of the snow the passage will be closed”, informed the caravan Gál on Saturday evening. And, to shatter the hopes of the teams, yes, it was. So they had to switch to plan B and drive in the ‘luxury’ way: on the motorway on the seaside. 

And if they were there… The motorway leads near Monaco’s fabulous capital, Monte Carlo. Among motorsport fans it is a common wish to drive on the legendary Formula 1 track at least once in a lifetime… Moreover, despite the snow and freezing weather, in Monte Carlo pleasant 16 degrees and bright sunshine welcomed the caravan. 

What started as individual ideas of the competitors, ended up as an ‘invasion’ in the luxury city. Rally vehicles parked on every corner, crews taking photos beside Ferraris, Bentleys and Rolls Royce… Even the ‘high society’ noticed that something special is going on: beside the guests of a luxury wedding even pop star ‘Jamiroqai’ greeted the Bamako competitors at a red traffic lamp from his black Ferrari. 

The concierge of the legendary Casino and also the policemen dressed in their traditional uniform proved to be understanding: they let the rally cars to be parked on the exclusive parking places in front of the Casino and ‘Hotel Paris’ and even seemed to be happy about the colourful ‘invasion’. “Oh, Budapest-Bamako, le petit Dakar! Welcome to Monaco!” They knew the rally already. 

But after Monaco, fun was over. The crews set on the motorway and headed directly towards Almeria in Southern Spain. They could have a stop in Montpellier, France, but the ‘tough’ ones opted for go directly to the port to be aboard the first ferry of the three booked for the rally.

 Unfortunately we have to report about another withdrawal. Three times winners of the Budapest-Bamako, Slovakian Juraj Ulrich and Daniela ‘Danka’ Ulrichova (Nissan) had to quit the race after Danka’s leg was injured. This meant a bitter disappointment for the couple from Bratislava and the end of their hopes to win the rally for a fourth time in a row. 

Only a few of the rally vehicles were able to board the first ferry on Monday morning. As a reward, now finally they have a normal amount of sleeping – after about 3000 kilometres on the motorway. (Marathonrally.com)

Budapest-Bamako Rally 2009 started on Saturday morning

Early in the morning on January 17, 2009 the participants of the fourth Budapest-Bamako Rally set off from the Hungarian capital Budapest. Despite of the freezing weather towsends of spectators gathered around the start ramp to cheer the crews, who started from exactly the same place where the scrutineering of the Central Europe Rally was held in April last year. 

The first vehicle the leave Felvonulási tér was the pace car, a beautifully rebuilt Peugeot 504 driven by the founder of the rally, Andrew G. Szabó himself. Then the teams drove (rode) through the start ramp one by one in order of their entry into the waiting area, starting with the two crews of the Travel Channel which is to make and broadcast a series of five programs about the rally in May. After a selection procedure, one duo from the UK and one from the Netherlands got the opportunity to tackle the adventures in two identical Suzuki Samurais. The ’Green Knights’, namely Robert Bell and Chris Drumney (both UK, car No 121) have never been to Budapest yet and were amazed by the beauty of the Hungarian capital. The two lively ladies from the Netherlands, Nynke Doorenbos and Amarja Niehof in car No 120 started under the team name ’From Holland with Love’. 

The vehicles represented a colourful mix from old and special ones like the VW Beetle or the FSO Polones Ambulans, which was ’saved’ from a Warsaw scrap-ground, the two Rally Trabants of German Guiness record holder D-Rolf and his helper ’the baker of the Sahara’ Wilfried Janke to the Nissan of three times winner Slovakian couple Juraj Ulrich and Danka Ulrichova, the Mitsubishi Pajero Evolution of Slovenian Robert and Tea Slavec, the seven Hummers of the Czech Hummer Racing Team (lead by former Dakar co-driver Mila Janacek and accompanied by marathonrally.com member Gabi Kulcsar) and also some nail new cars, mostly Nissans, prepared by the same company which takes care of the Navara of the Hungarian cross country rally champion Laszlo Palik. 

Beside them also took off four ambulance cars (after the rally, three of them will serve in Mali, one in Mauritania), a big truck of Herczegh Specialtransport, packed fully with the donations of ’Hungary for Africa’ and also an old fire engine. 

Other interesting members of the field were the Citroen DS of Norwegian Hans Petter Svege and Sturla Bang and the Citroen 2 CV of Hungarian Viktor Lengyel and Laszlo Racz for whom it’s not the first time at the Bamako. And what brings them back to Africa? „We return to find the camera we lost last year”, explains Lengyel with a big smile. 

To make the transfer from Budapest to the shores of Africa a bit more interesting, there are some tasks to solve for points already on these stages. As at all tasks during the rally, the teams can decide if they take part in a certain task or not. Those who were cunning could take some advantage already here. 

But because of the long, 750 km stage to Brescia (Italy) only a few teams decided to solve these first tasks, the majority of the crews took the motorway through Austria instead. But, like at the Dakar, throughout the route in Hungary and Austria, fans cheered the teams from motorway bridges and in the villages crossed. Even at the petrol stations where the crews stopped spectators gathered quickly to see the vehicles. 

As the start of the first stage, after only some kilometres the competitors had to find a hidden character with the help of the GPS – near a stone-pit. The navigation was quite tricky: two parallel ways but only one of them led the crews back to the rally route, the other one ended up in the stone-pit, so there was a good chance of getting lost on the very first kilometres of the Budapest-Bamako. 

Bad news, that already on the first day one of the participants had to abandon after slipping on the icy surface and breaking a leg. The 850 km long Sunday leg leads the caravan to from Brescia in Italy to Montpellier in France, before on Monday they go on to Spain to ferry To Morocco – where the action actually begins. (Marathonrally.com)

Watch a video of the start here