The Dakar off-road endurance event might be fun to watch on television but most people are happy to leave it at that.
Not so for Port Edward macadamia nut farmer Stuart Gregory. He’s recently turned 40 and decided it’s time to fulfil a boyhood dream and conquer this challenge.
Some of his mates have joked that he’s ‘nuts’ as Dakar is no Sunday afternoon stroll.
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The distances of each stage covered vary from short distances up to 800 to 900 kilometres per day.
“It’s the ultimate challenge for dirt riders,” he said.
He’d also like to become the first South Coaster to do it and hopes the local business fraternity will help him get there, as he needs to raise somewhere in the region of R1-million.
He came through a qualifying event – the Afriquia Merzouga Rally 2018 – in Morocco last week without too much trouble.
“I was amazed at the result, did better than I thought I would. Qualifying was easy, now comes the hard part,” he said.
Stuart has been riding bikes since he was a teenager. As he grew older, he began competing in bike rides, some quite extreme, in Germany, Turkey and Romania.
“The idea was to gain experience and confidence to go for Dakar,” he said.
Dakar will take place in January 2019 and involves 14 days of racing over 9 000km.
Most events since the inception in 1978 were from Paris, France, to Dakar, Senegal, but, due to security threats in Mauritania, which led to the cancellation of the 2008 rally, races since 2009 have been held in South America.
Stuart rides a KTM 450 rally with 32 litres of fuel. He’ll use the same bike for Dakar.
He has been training throughout the year, with a daily ‘boot camp’ and he tries to get on the bike as much as he can at weekends.
“Riding in the sand is totally different to what we are used to so I need to practise more in the dunes,” he said.
While the ride may be daunting, Stuart also has to raise the funds necessary to make it all possible.
Follow him on nuts4dakar and join him on his journey towards Dakar 2019 or phone him at 082 7704727.
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