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Don on Rally Radio
Don’s Quote Of The Day: “Hard grueling day. Tough exhausting dirty lousy day in all”
Today was not a good day for the Rally. Don provided the following update:
Today didn’t start out too well for everyone here in Morocco as two of the ERT technicians were killed and three of the organization officials were seriously injured in a car accident en route to the start of the special. Our thoughts and prayers go out to their families and co-workers who must now carry on without them.
Now to today’s stage —>
As a result of the accident we had a two hour delay which was really tough as we were sitting in the hot sun with no shade at all. The course today was very very rocky, in fact, every single member of our team did not like it. The 690 KTM enduro that I am riding is definitely not suited for this kind of terrain – the suspension is absolutely stock so it cannot absorb the kind of impact the bike is receiving…so it is very difficult to ride. My body is taking a huge pounding, particularly my injured hand. On the positive side I went from last place to 5th place on Stage 1 and today I only dropped 1 place. Given how hard I was fighting the bike, I am pretty happy with that, in fact just happy to have finished today.
The rest of the team had their own issues. David Dickinson (from UK) had an encounter with a rock that resulted in a big crash – he damaged his bike pretty good and will have some nice bruises tomorrow, but other than that he is ok. The same cannot be said for Rick Hatswell of Vancouver. I visited him in the medical center tonight and he showed me his X-rays. It looks like a very bad break in his leg. He seems to be in good spirits…last I saw him he was trying to convince the medical staff to allow him a beer which they declined. Justin Carter (UK) is fighting the flu and feels pretty rough tonight. Tomorrow we encounter sand and sand dunes. I am hoping that the KTM will perform better in that terrain.
Don’s Quote Of The Day: “Rocks, rocks, and more rocks, and we’re not talking pebbles here”
Well Don did make it to the start line today. However his issues were not restricted to just navigation equipment electrical problems!
Don described the course as “rocks, rocks, and more rocks and we’re not talking pebbles.” The Bike had a problem with the suspension on the first stage, it didn’t have any. Bernie was able to make it a bit better at the neutralization break which allowed Don to ride the second stage. Apparently after the race Bernie was still working on the suspension at 2AM Monday, local time.
Day one of the Rally has been tough on Don’s body as well. He twisted his knee and re-injured his right hand but he says he is okay to ride tomorrow.
Don will start in 5th place in the Enduro class tomorrow (Monday).
Don’s Quote Of The Day: “It’s been a hell of a day”
Don on Rally Radio
After a grueling day in the hot sun it looks like Don has all the stamps from scrutineering to participate in the Rally tomorrow.
Bernie and the bikes finally arrived late Saturday morning after Don had his administrative scrutineering. This really put him behind with scrutineering. On top of that Don’s bike had some serious wiring problems that took over 5 hours to repair. They are hoping that they don’t have any problems tomorrow… apparently it is all related to power to the navigation equipment.
Don said it really beats up on your confidence when the bike has these kinds of issues. Wiring could cause him to be stranded in the desert.
Bikes start out tomorrow at 7am – Don is now number 242, his start time should be 8:17.
And how about Bernie and Tony the two mechanics who have been up for over 24 hours – no food – no sleep and still not finished.
Update on Don’s Journey
Don and Natalie made it to Zagora on October 23 after a 4 hour car ride with a manic Moroccan driver. The journey was along an extremely high, narrow winding road with no guardrails.
However, Don’s bike has not arrived yet. Apparently the ferry that the bike and mechanic Bernie were traveling on was delayed by bad weather off the coast of Spain. Bernie and the bike arrived in Tangiers around noon on Friday. They have a 14-hour trip to Zagora and then need to do final setup of the bike before Don’s scrutineering time at 07:30 Saturday. Not a lot of time!!!
Don’s quote for the day “well that’s Morocco for you”.
They are hearing from most of the seasoned drivers and riders that the food, accommodation and wine is much better than last year.
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Route Map
2009 Shamrock Rally of Morocco
Zagora, Morocco
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Where in the world is Don Hatton?
We know he made it to France. Scrutineering starts on Saturday October 24th so hopefully he is in Morocco now.
This years Shamrock Rally of Morocco has a record number of participants, 190, including 49 motorcycles. Don is lucky #242. For a complete list of entrants check out the list of entrants above.
One of the biggest challenges in any rally is navigation including reading and updating the road book. Just ask Don about his 2009 Dakar experience. For a glimpse of what a road book looks like, and the multitude of symbols they can contain, check out the sample road book link above.
Check out the promotional video of the Rally via the link above. It gives some idea of what the terrain will be like.
If you want more information on the Morocco Rally go to the NPO web site.
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Dakar 2010 Links and Info
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Don Welcomed to Argentina
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The planning and hectic schedule associated with the Christmas Holidays are all behind us now. Don has arrived in Argentina!
Don met with the Canadian Ambassador to Argentina Timothy Martin and Deputy Ambassador Steve Hawley. They along with embassy staff provided Don with a lot of assistance after his crash in Dakar 2009.
Today, December 29, is scrutineering day for Dakar 2010. Don will be making his way through over 18 of the technical inspections by himself, if that’s not enough to stress him out we don’t know what is.
Speaking of stress, in conversations before departing Don admitted to being somewhat nervous about this years race. Its not last years crash, or the lack of time on his KTM 690 Rally bike that concerns him. It’s the dreaded sand and DUNES. Miles and miles of big, energy sapping, soul destroying dunes.
The inside scuttle on this years route, is that the organizers have tried to make it tougher than last years.
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For one of the stages they are allowing the competitors 36 hours to finish!!. Can you image it. You’ve been beating your body up for days and now you have a stage that could take up to 36 hours to complete. Wow! I guess the organizers weren’t happy with a finish rate of 27.6% in 2009. They want to spend less on finishing medals this year.
Stay tuned, we will get links up to the Dakar tracking information soon and provide you with an e-mail address you can use to send Don your best wishes.
Its gonna be a good one.
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We just heard that Don has made it through the first hurdle of any major Rally, the scrutineering. Sounds like there were a few minor issues but nothing that couldn’t be overcome.
The next challenge will be finding enough tires and mousse. Don’s supply for both fell through in December and he has been searching frantically ever since to try and buy, beg, borrow, or, well not steal, them from were ever he can. If you have some sitting in you basement give him a call.
We hope to get an additional update from Don or Natalie later today so check back later.
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Don and Bike Before Scrutineering
Inspection of Olympia Jacket
The Team – John, Bernie, Don
Post Scrutineering at Start Podium
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As we reported yesterday, Don and the bike both made it through scrutineering. There were a couple minor issues, such as whether his Olympia Jacket met the regulations or not. But by the end of the day he had gotten through and was a happy camper.
The next challenge was to source engine oil and tires and mousse. Elf came through with enough oil for the race, a big thumbs up to Elf. Don managed to find some tires and mousse. However he will need to find more in order to finish the race.
Natalie reports that yesterday was a long day through scrutineering … but exhilarating at the end! The best feeling really for all of us. All the organizers we dealt with yesterday were very pleasant. The Argentines are warm people, the food has been great and the weather is picking up (raining and thunder storms for the first few days), but hot yesterday and today (Dec 31). When Don rode his bike from the Docks to downtown (about 1 1/2 hours) it was pouring.
The locals came out in full force Wednesday afternoon. Max and Natalie were left at the Dakar site and it took them ages to thread their way back to the Hotel on the street.
Natalie also reports that they have run into many familiar faces as well. Javier and Sandra who own DakarMotos in Buenos Aires and have been very helpful to Don and the team over the last two years and lots of other people from different teams that they recognize from last year or other rallies – “it’s truly wonderful”.
Don had a chat with Marc Coma as well yesterday and told him (joking of course) that now that Don had a factory bike, and Marc does not, he plans on passing Marc this year. Of course Marc found that quite funny for some reason.
Don will be in good hands again this year, as his favorite Rally doctor, Alain, is once again in attendance. Alain has attended 15 Dakars as a medic and he loves it. He told Don that he thinks the Argentina/Chile course is far more dangerous than any of the African courses have been.
Hopefully Don will not need to talk to Alain or any other medical staff before the end of the Rally. However he still has a nagging cough left over from his bout of the flu earlier this year and that will not help as the rally wears on.
The weather around Buenos Aires has been unseasonably wet so far this year, with wide ranging floods causing heavy damage. The organizers are reporting that some sections of the course will be quite muddy. At least that will give the riders a break from all the dust they encountered last year. Not that they won’t get their fair share of dust in the dessert and dunes.
Don and the team will be hosting a small New Years Party for some of the other teams and then the real fun begins.
Don is going to focus on his navigation and road book work, just like in Morocco. He says that previous rally’s have really driven home the point that you have to finish to do well, and the best way to finish is to stay on course, not get lost, and be very aware of the hazards on the course. Hopefully the results for Dakar 2010 will be just as good as in Morocco 2009.
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Well, nothing is ever easy at the Dakar, especially for competitor #73 Javier Pizzolito. A short time before he was to depart the Parc Ferme his bike suddenly caught fire. Of course this added a bit of excitement to Don’s day as he was parked very close to Pizzolito and had to push his bike away before the flames spread. Apparently it was so close that the flames were almost touching his leg. The fire department arrived fairly quickly and doused the flames before any other equipment was damaged. According to on-line sources the damage was fairly significant and Pizzolito will not be able to continue in this years Dakar.
After this bit of excitement Don started the race. In the accompanying pictures you can see his helmet camera getting a close inspection from the officials. We are not sure if Don was able to keep the camera on or not since some additional pictures show the camera in place, and others show it missing. We hope Don gets some good footage.
So he’s off. Today’s stage is only a 317 km liaison to Colon, so no real racing, it just gets them out of the city and ready for tomorrow.
Don made it into Colon by about 8PM. It was hot out there and hard to get around because the crowds were plugging up many of the roads. Don’s not to impressed with the food at the Bivouac, nor the swarms of mosquitoes that have shown up thanks to the recent rains.
Don is doing his road book now (around 9PM local time) and will then head to bed as he needs to be up at 4AM for a 5AM start.
Thanks to Brice and Mrs. Brice of ADVRider for the pictures on this page.
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