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Whereas a lot of the world has tailored to the COVID-19 pandemic after almost three years, its affect continues to ripple by way of the motorsport world. From the manufacturing line to annual commerce occasions, the business nonetheless struggles to return to the “previous regular” after adjusting to the “new regular”. One such entity is the Africa Eco Race (AER).
For 2023, the rally hoped to revert again to its conventional timeslot. Regardless of the 2022 Africa Eco Race wrapping in October, 2022, the race sequence ambitiously set its sights on March 14-26, 2023. As an alternative, organizers will push the fifteenth version of the AER to December 30, 2022, by way of January 14, 2024. Collection officers provided a proof in a written assertion on Saturday, January 21, 2023.
“Certainly, like different sporting occasions, the present climatic upheavals are forcing us to rethink and adapt our human actions,” the assertion famous. “Different races have additionally been hit laborious firstly of 2023, just like the one which has simply resulted in Saudi Arabia in harsh and unsatisfactory situations.”
Should you didn’t decide up on that passive-aggressive Dakar Rally reference, the World’s Hardest Race positive lived as much as its billing this yr. Torrential rains battered the Saudi Arabian area, forcing officers to prematurely conclude this yr’s third stage. Based on AER’s newest assertion, it strives to keep away from an analogous destiny by suspending the 2023 installment.
“As we’re writing these strains, the legendary Lac Rose in Dakar, the end line of our race, is within the grip of main flooding, with water ranges rising by nearly three meters on its banks,” the group added.
The delay additionally grants officers extra time to coordinate the fifteenth version, as the unique dates crammed two AERs within the span of six months. The 2023 Africa Eco Race route hasn’t launched but, however the rally typically follows Thierry Sabine’s Paris-Dakar chapters. Final yr, the 16-day race featured a 12-stage, 5,983-kilometer (3718-mile) route from Monaco to the shores of Senegal’s Lac Rose (Lake Retba).
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