2023 Rallye du Maroc: Cambier, Mickus survive in Open category

Two cars and six side-by-side vehicles entered the Rallye du Maroc as Open entries that do not meet FIA regulations, which would have otherwise allowed them to race alongside the World Rally-Raid Championship. Not even half of them reached the finish.

Jérôme Cambier was already in position to win the Open Auto class when Patrick Prot, the only other entrant in the category, retired on the very first stage. Prot and co-driver Roger Audas had run the Dakar Rally in January in a T1 for Sodicars Racing, where they were set back by stage retirements but at least reached the finish. Even with his competition out, Cambier still needed to complete the rally if he wanted to be the winner.

Racing an MD Optimus from MD Rallye Sport alongside Pascal Delacour, Cambier set the fastest time of all Open entries in the final three stages, and his final total time beat Open SSV winner Tomas Mickus by twenty-one minutes. MD Rallye Sport also fielded three cars in the W2RC’s T1 class at Morocco with Simon Vitse scoring a top ten overall.

Mickus and Algirdas Talutis, representing the Lithuanian BRO Racing team, were the only Open SSV finishers. Issues struck Mickus quickly when his Can-Am Maverick X3 lost its power steering before the Prologue; diagnosing it as being due to the engine, he and navigator Darius Leskauskas attempted to find a replacement motor in the bivouac to little success, while the only available version was in Spain and they were unable to fly it to Morocco in time. The duo eventually received a replacement power steering system from a Renault Mégane that they installed in the morning before the rally began.

Despite operating on just two hours of sleep, Mickus won the Prologue and Stage #1. Talutis responded by taking the next two legs before Mickus closed it out with the win. Adomas Gančierius, who finished third overall in the Quad category at the W2RC’s Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge, served as co-driver for Talutis.

Charif Guessous and Sofia Skiredj, local racers competing for the Africa Rallye Team organised by the Rallye du Maroc, had a tumultuous race as they ran out of fuel and their headset batteries failed during the first stage, then rolled their Maverick down a dune in Stage #3.

Open overall results

Auto

Finish	Number	Driver	Co-Driver	Team	Time	Margin
1	601	Jérôme Cambier	Pascal Delacour	MD Rallye Sport	21:21:46	Leader
DNF	600	Patrick Prot	Roger Audas	Prot.P	DNF	N/A

SSV

Finish	Number	Driver	Co-Driver	Team	Time	Margin
1	653	Tomas Mickus	Darius Leskauskas	BRO Racing	21:42:23	Leader
2	656	Algirdas Talutis	Adomas Gančierius	BRO Racing	23:04:50	+ 1:22:27
DNF	651	Lucas Delmas-Marsalet	Thomas de Saulieu	Quad Bike Evasion	DNF	N/A
DNF	652	Joan Alain	Axel Dutrie	Drag’on Rally Team	DNF	N/A
DNF	654	Fabrice Manté	Pascal Pagand	Fond’cale Racing	DNF	N/A
DNF	657	Charif Guessous	Sofia Skiredj	Africa Rallye Team	DNF	N/A

Open class winners

Stage	Auto	Time	SSV	Time
Prologue	Jérôme Cambier	12:23.7	Tomas Mickus	13:32.7
Stage #1	Jérôme Cambier	5:17:43	Tomas Mickus	5:12:27
Stage #2	Jérôme Cambier	4:24:43	Algirdas Talutis	4:14:27
Stage #3	Jérôme Cambier	3:57:20	Algirdas Talutis	4:11:27
Stage #4	Jérôme Cambier	5:11:14	Tomas Mickus	5:22:34
Stage #5	Jérôme Cambier	2:30:46	Tomas Mickus	2:40:36

Overall winners

Class	Number	Competitor	Team	Time
T1	201	Yazeed Al-Rajhi	Toyota Gazoo Racing	14:49:09
T2	251	Ronald Basso*	Team Land Cruiser Toyota Auto Body	22:14:17
T3	315	Marek Goczał	EnergyLandia Rally Team	16:22:12
T4	403	João Ferreira	South Racing Can-Am	18:26:24
T5	506	Michiel Becx*	Team de Rooy	21:32:34
RallyGP	8	Toby Price	Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	15:56:43
Rally2	32	Bradley Cox	BAS World KTM Racing Team	17:06:37
Rally3	164	Cheikh Yves Jacquemain	Africa Rallye Team	23:42:39
Quad	186	Alexandre Giroud*	Drag’on Rally Team	21:07:24
Open Auto	601	Jérôme Cambier*	MD Rallye Sport	21:21:46
Open SSV	653	Tomas Mickus*	BRO Racing	21:42:23
Road to Dakar Bike	71	Toby Hederics*	BAS World KTM Racing Team	19:11:16
Road to Dakar SSV	420	William Grarre*	Team Horizon Off-Road	21:50:39

* – Not competing in World Rally-Raid Championship