Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge Rally

[crmcatee]

Popped out to cover the rally for these guys (You may have been reading the journal in the General Motorsport section here)

Anyway I was out following these guys -


The entrants included cars, a lone truck, quads and bikes.
Sebastian Husseini giving Marc Coma (eventual race winner) the dust from his rooster tail.



The quads were very much a point and squirt approach to the top of dunes.



The Russians would try and drive through them


Our guys mid race -



Typical spectator section of the race.


A mates team bottoms out in the dune


The locals try the bottom out and launch it approach


The BMW was flying - we did however beat it to three sections of the race...


We had a slight run in with the ground (captured on both in car cameras and one external) which removed the bonnet.



Comments most welcome...

Edited by crmcatee on Tuesday 31st March 10:45

[edmellor]

Fantastic photos, I especially like the first one, and it looks as if it was an amazing rally to spectate, I would love to see something like this first hand.

[The Tea Boy]

love the pics esp the one where the sand is forced infront of the car

Matt

[crmcatee]

It's a cracking event but does involve a lot of driving to keep up with the race and getting to viewing areas.

I kindly (from Honda) had a Honda Pilot with about 200Km on the clock to run about it - six days later it was back with them with 2,700Km on the clock and I was taking it easy and not going to the distant points of the race.

[havoc]

Nice pics.

What's the odd ugly-bug in the first pic...looks like it'd be fun!

[crmcatee]

It's a Fast and Speed FIA T1 buggy..

Specs on it can be found here : Team Saluki

[tim-b]

great set of pics, what an opportunity! did your kit suffer from the conditions? must be a bh to change lenses!

[crmcatee]

After five days of sandstorms you soon learn to change lenses in dust free conditions which in the middle of the desert don't actually exist. Inside the car was the best place - I carried a puffer in my pocket all week and when the L lenses started to grate a couple of minutes of puffing got them going free again.

The camera performed faultlessly (1d MKIII) as I expected it to, externally it could do with a clean but no problems otherwise.

[horacethefrog]

Were you snapping for Mark Powell then? Used to kick around with him and John Mitchell Ross in the Emirates in the late 90s. A few pics of an expedition to the Empty Quarter with them here

Great shots you've got there.

Edited by horacethefrog on Thursday 9th April 20:25

[crmcatee]

Yes. Mark asked me out again this year.. When will he learn...

Recognise the guy in the "and again" image. I believe he's put on a bit of weight since then though.

Looked like a buys two days...

[horacethefrog]

Ah yes, Phil Chicot, he was never small! Lovely guy, I came to know him as 'The Inversion King' after I was sailing with him when he totally inverted the boat and then, a few weeks later, was a passenger in his Landcruiser when he did the same thing with that (some of those shots are the aftermath of that). Happy days!

[crmcatee]

Thats him - he helps out on the Challenge as a Marshall.

Mark is on here as Desert Dog.

The event write up is here if you didn't see it. Challenge 2009 complete with some video of a small incident we had.