5th SAHARA RALLY GRAND ERG 2009

Still even more professional and safer

For the 5th time the rallye GRAND ERG will start the race in May 2009. In its short but impressive history, the event has ever since brought new highlights into the amateur-rallye-scene:

In 2006 the GE was the first of its kind, that dared to go far south to tiaret and borj el khadra and was instantly hyped on marathonrally.com as "the toughest north-africa-rally". Since its first edition, the G.E. was the only amateur-rallye, that introduced marathon-stages with no service allowed between two days´ stages to equalize between highly modified prototypes and production vehicles. Since in 2006 a desert-camp was introduced as a break from the hotel-nights, we are – even in the outback –offering toilets, showers and even a pool !

Since 2007 the GE is the only event, that offers a free satellite-phone to each team as an unbeatable safety-plus. Since 2007 the GE is the only of its kind, that offers a free insurance package to each participant, ranging from travel-medical up to motorsports-indemnity-insurance.

Since 2008 our stewards are equipped with their own radar speed-traps to control the speed-limits in our control-zones as well as in the civil traffic-areas. Last year, too, the medical services were upgrated to a level, that sets the pace in this kind of event!

The fact, that not only theses “gimmicks” and safety-features are well accepted, but aswell the professional organization is far ahead from other events (light-barrier-timing since 2005, transparent ranking max. 2 hous after stage´s finish, strict regulations, which are applied consequently and equal for everybody) is reflected from the bare numbers (the GRAND ERG 2008 counted 180 people !!!) as well as from the consistently growing media-attention (since June several reports from the GE 2008 are showing on the TV channels “Kabel-1” and “N-24”).

In the same manner, the GE 2009 will introduce new features: The rallye is extended now to a duration of 2 weeks and approx. 1500 km timed stages. Scrutineering, medical checks, compulsory first-aid-course and safety-briefing will only be held on the first day in Tunisia (at “Club Aldiana” in Nabeul), before we start onto the prologue.

Furthermore from the next GRAND ERG an own class for historic vehicles is introduced!!!

The reconaissance which was completed in november harvested good results: A well-balanced mix from dunes, highspeed, navigation and “real offroad”, covering the entire range of breathtaking Tunisian sceneries.

As always the focus is on short liaison-sections and long timed stages to really let yourself go. The shortest timed stage will cover about 100 km, the longest about 220 km. We are expecting daily driving-times between 6 and 10 hours!