Rallye Aïcha des Gazelles

Off-road champion Emily Miller and Rallye veteran and 2008 winner Armelle Médard have teamed up this year to form U.S.A.-France Team 109 (Rod Hall Racing). Podium contenders from day 1 of the competition, the team is currently running in 2nd place in the 4x4 class.

 

Miller, the first American to compete in the Rallye 3 times, shared her thoughts about her new teammate: “Armelle is a first class navigator, but she is also hysterically funny, has a dry sense of humour and is tough as nails. We laugh A LOT. And when things go wrong, after the first reaction, we laugh harder. Armelle is now more than my co-pilot, she is my friend. When life returns to its normal chaos, I will miss her.”

Team 124 has been within reach of victory at the Rallye Aïcha des Gazelles du Maroc several times, but each time their hopes were dashed by last-minute vehicle problems. Today the team is leading the 4x4 class in the general ranking.

With a comfortable lead over 2nd-place Team 109, Carole Montillet CARLES and Syndiely WADE are confident. But they are also aware that nothing is certain: "We aren't thinking about winning, we are just trying to stay focused and do our best!". The attitude of professional athletes, who are not to be distracted from the task at hand, doing whet is necessary to reach their goal. Will this be the year when they will finally succeed? To be continued...

Team 141 - EPHESUS can't hide their joy on reaching the checkpoint. Even though Prune is the "oldest" Gazelle of this edition with 12 participations, and Sylvie has participated 3 times, they are still just as enthusiastic as ever! "This is the last day; in a way we are happy that it's over, especially  in terms of the vehicle: we have had a fuel leak since the start and drive with a fire extinguisher close at hand..." explains Prune. "Even though it was long and hard - and it really wasn't Club Med this year; we haven't been eating candy in flip-flops" jokes Sylvie, "Stay cool, that's what characterises our team! On the terrain, we help lots of new Gazelles: yesterday we got a team out that had been stuck in the sand for more than 4 hours; the girls couldn't take it any more. We got them out of there and they gave us champagne and foie gras to thank us -  that was perfect for our camp during the marathon leg! A good example of Gazelle spirit!"