Kayesport - Richards Dakar Diary

Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three

The Chapter One

When I was a child growing up I used to watch the Dakar on television and think how good it would be to do it one day but I never imagined it would be on a motorbike!!

Since a long before I can remember I’ve been going to motor sports events with my family across Europe and the UK my father raced cars, my brother James still races cars.

I started motor racing when I was 17 years old. I built a group A rally car and competed in some local events in Yorkshire.

After a while I realized there’s no way I could afford to continue so I sold the car had bought a circuit racing car

I was immediately successful wining many championships. I carried on racing in one make championships for a few years and progressed into the British touring car championship with a Ford Mondeo. A year later I moved to a Vauxhall cavalier.

Also I have raced in FIA GT championship with Porsches Russian touring car championship and various races in Sweden other countries,

But back to the Dakar rally I started riding off road in 1999 with a friend of mine Tim Harvey ex British touring car champion!

Pretty much every weekend we would do small events and also quite a few other touring car drivers would join us two.

But I did not get into biking in such enthusiasm until I moved to Tuscany Italy. Ridiing in Italy is absolutely incredible experience its extremely difficult and varied terrain. I have also Ridden in most European countries and islands and been to the desert in Morocco covering 2000 kilometres earlier this year. You could say I have gone a bit Mad.

It was not until I was down in Morocco that I decided it could actually be possible to do the Dakar.

Riding in the sand requires an extremely different technique. After a few days you get the hang of it. You start to have a lot of fun in the different landscape and terrain it is soooo much fun!! Around every sand dune is a new adventure.

So I decided to do a little bit of research found CBV Racing and j.nc.o. With a suitable KTM and support. I put an entry in and here we are.

I have now had my entry confirmed already. I have some good sponsors with global jet concept and tower systems but still require more as usual!

Everybody thinks I am absolutely crazy but they would not expect anything different!

Now the real work begins!!

Chapter Two

It has been quite interesting doing the second part of the preparation for the Dakar. Entering and finding a team was the easy part!

But then you realise you've got to find the money for each payment to the ASO and the team quite soon after, For me this has not been so painful because of my background in motor Sport, I have some good friends in good places which have helped me out a lot (Thanks guys.) Even so it is a nightmare trying to raise 45 thousand Euros!! The first question any potential sponsor asks is WHY? And are you MAD?

Then there's the Bike to get ready and all the kit you need. All the time you think, will that part last for 10,000 Km across rocks and sand and you become paranoid. So now I have ended up with virtually a new bike bit by bit!!

Then you get the rule book, and when you read it for the first time… well, it's in English, but it's French/English so you must read it 5 times so you understand what the hell it means !! (I still don't really)

You then need to order all the navigation stuff from 3 different French companies with 5 different options for each item, all overlapping each other, again not really that easy to understand French/English!! If you have not done the Dakar before this is not so easy.

People said to me at the start of this to prep for the Dakar is like a black art! If you know, it's so obvious, but if you don't there's not much help available. They like to keep the information to themselves!! Well I can say that is pretty much true except for a couple of exceptions. Just the simple stuff is confusing. I think somebody should write a book on how to prep for the Dakar for dummies!! They will make a fortune.

So now I am just going through the last stages of preparation for the Bike. I have tested the spare engine this week after it has been freshened up. All ok.

Now I am stripping the Bike one last time to put in the race engine and at the same time fit all the electronics for the navigation systems which has arrived from the organisers. (Big job, lots of wires) Oh, and putting on a new swinging arm just to be safe, of course!

As soon as it done I will test the Bike again before living on the 30th for Lisbon

Off to start the next chapter ... to be continued....!!

I would like to thank all the people and companies who have made it possible for me to get this far.

Chapter Three

I have just returned from the Dakar series, the first leg was the Central Europe Rally. You may have seen it on Eurosport, 7 days riding through Hungary and Romania.

We started in Budapest, then onwards through Romania before turning back to Lake Balatonfüred in Hungary. It was a hard rally of 3000 kms in wet and windy conditions. For my first rally this was a good test.

The 660 KTM I have is built for the sand and at 200 kilos it was a hand full in the wet, rocky mountains and snow!

I did surprise myself and a lot of people after the first day, I started in 40th place and it just got better from there.

It was fast, at times 170kph for 200kms at a time. I just tried to stay safe and ride at my own speed.

I did not get tired or make any navigation mistakes, it's the first time I have had to read a road book and a GPS while riding at those speeds.

In the end I finished in 28th place, in my first world rated rally, that's not so bad!

I would like to thank all the people and companies who have made it possible for me to do this. I have learned a lot from this rally, it was very good experience for my next plan.

And that is to finish what I started, and do the Dakar! It's in Argentina and Chile next year and I have a guaranteed entry.

Once again, thank you all.

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