Gerard de Rooy enjoys ‘old school Dakar’ on Africa Eco Race 2018
On the beach at the Lac Rose, near the Senegalese capital Dakar, Gerard de Rooy couldn’t resist to make a race out of the 20 km stretch. The end of the Africa Eco Race was short, but spectacular, with all ten remaining trucks together on the beach. At the finish line, De Rooy looked back on what he called ‘old school Dakar’. “I had a really nice rally.”
It had been eleven years since De Rooy was in Mauretania and Senegal for the last time, but little had changed, he noticed. “It is just as beautiful as the last time.”
He couldn’t win the Africa Eco Race overall – the buggies and the Mini were too fast compared to the trucks – but De Rooy was satisfied after all. “I enjoyed both the beautiful specials and the toughness. That was what it was all about in the first place: having fun again. They were long specials, but still short days because we had almost no connection. I really look back on it with a very good feeling.”
