The 25th all female Rallye Aicha des Gazelles will take place March 20-April 4 and America will be sending 10 teams. European competitors will start with technical verifications March 20 in Paris, with American teams joining them in Rabat, Morocco on March 24. From there teams will travel over the Atlas Mountains to Erfoud to start the 9-day competition.
Participants in the Gazelle Rally are not allowed chase crews, cell phones, or GPS. Points are awarded for shortest distance between checkpoints, not fastest time. Teams can choose their route with the help of an old map, a plotter, and a compass. There is no roadbook. Teams are given map coordinates and must plot them on their maps, find their heading, then drive in as straight a line as possible. If a team comes upon an obstacle, be it a wash or a mountain, they must navigate around it and then return to their original heading.
With the exception of the marathon legs, teams return each night to a mobile bivouac, where they eat, sleep, gas up, and receive mechanical assistance.
At the 2015 Gazelle Rally the US will have their first ever side x side team in the Teryx Girls. Sara Price and Erika Sacks will be taking their IMG Motorsports prepped 2015 Kawasaki Teryx UTV to Morocco to test their skills in the barren Moroccan desert.
Sara Price made history in 2010 as the first ever female factory Kawasaki supported racer in motocross. She also achieved over 16 Amateur Championships on a Kawasaki during her amateur racing career as well as medaling in X-Games. Sara crossed over into side x side racing in 2012, racing many different disciplines in a UTV and quickly became a force to be reckoned with.
Erica Sacks has over 15 years of off-road racing experience. She has been all over the Baja Peninsula and has raced the longest race in the US, giving her the knowledge necessary to compete in this long race. She has raced in a variety of off-road cars from Trophy Karts to Class 1 cars, and has the experience of racing in the most prestigious off-road races held in world. She recently finished second place in UTV at the 2014 Lake Elsinore Grand Prix.
“We’re feeling very confident going into the rally, with the combination of our training with the USA Gazelles and the capabilities of our Kawasaki Teryx. In our training we pushed our Teryx to its boundaries and it came out ready to keep going,” says Sara Price, pilot for Team Kawasaki IMG Motorsports.
The Teryx Girls have already overcome one hurdle: the dock worker’s strike at the Los Angeles port. A labor dispute threatened the timely shipment of their side x side to Africa. The ladies, along with fellow competitors the Hoehn sisters, got their vehicles out of the port and on to a trailer. Then they drove like hell 1500 miles to Texas to make a ship leaving from Houston.
Their side x side has a 783cc engine with a continuously variable belt drive transmission. The UTV has selectable 4WD with a locking front differential and piggyback reservoir coilover Fox shocks all the way around. IMG built the ladies a custom cage, seats, and racing harnesses. They will also be equipped with all the spare parts they could need, from spare axles, suspension parts, and steering components.
We’ll be posting daily updates on TFL Car, but you can follow all the American teams and even send them messages of encouragement at www.gazellerally.com.
You can check out the build video from IMG Motorsports here.
And while we haven’t had the chance to get our mitts on a side x side here at TFL Car, we have tested a motorcycle or two.
Emme is a driver, reviewer, rabble rouser, and Gazelle who can be found online on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and either one of her blogs.
