1. Rally Pro
The Rally Pro category is the real stuff, open to the more experienced drivers of cars, trucks, buggies, SSV’s, quads and motorbikes. About 75% of the competitors enters this category. Navigation is by a FIA-style road book and the GPS UNIK 2. This device, built by the French company ERTF, is used in all world championship rallies (FIA/FIM) and long distance rally raids like the Dakar. This means the days of following an arrow from waypoint to waypoint with an ordinary gps are over. Correct navigation, guided by a detailed roadbook, therefore has become an important ingredient.
The introduction of the “GPS UNIK” means the days of driving from waypoint to waypoint are over. Correctly navigating, aided by a precise roadbook will become equally as important to driving itself. The GPS UNIK stays in “sleeping mode” during most of the day and switches on automatically when you’re close to a waypoint. It also registers speed excess in certain zones and tells the race management immediately at the finish line how many waypoints you’ve reached.
Built-in this device is also the “Sentinel”, a kind of alarm/warning system which allows safe overtaking. If you want to overtake another rider you push the button of your Sentinel, the pilot driving in front of you gets a warning on his device (alarm & stroboscopic light) and knows a faster vehicle wants to overtake him/her. Those who, after 3 warnings, refuse to give way, automatically get a penalty time.
The introduction of these systems (GPS UNIK & Sentinel) makes the rally more professional, a lot safer and allows the race director to publish a correct ranking in a very short time frame. Plus: being able to practice with this tool in the -relatively cheap- Morocco Desert Challenge, is ideal if you have the ambition to do a Dakar or another FIA/FIM rally in the future.
A beautiful competition for those who want to measure themselves against the best. About 75% of those who register for MDC, chose this option. Participants are provided with accurate road books covering daily stages varying between 250-500km (depending on the terrain). Official officers supervise the competition. It is the ideal preparation for the more difficult Dakar stages combined with breath-taking landscapes.
Morocco Desert Challenge is no FIA or FIM event. That would not fit in our philosophy to have a race that is open to anyone. Nevertheless we make use of the official guidelines concerning road books, GPS, penalties, checkpoints et cetera, because MDC is often used as a stepping stone to the Dakar, Silk Way Rally or FIA/FIM world championship rallies and thereby our competitors can get used to terminology and rules of those events.
Rally Pro competitors are divided in subcategories.