Moroccan rider Amine Echiguer is set to compete in one of the most gruelling rally raid events in the world for the first time, the Africa Eco Race. The race re-traces the original Paris–Dakar Rally route, starting in Monaco and finishing in Dakar from 30 December 2023 to 14 January 2024.
Echiguer started competition by winning jet-ski races in Morocco at a very young age. After getting his master’s degree at an engineering university, he decided to pursue his dream in racing. He spent several years training in the Moroccan desert, which turned into results when he won the Rallye du Maroc’s Enduro Cup twice. Echiguer also has four national championships in motocross, cross-country rally, and beach races.
In 2022, he won the inaugural World Rally-Raid Championship in the Rally3 category with a victory at the Rallye du Maroc in which he claimed all but one stage. He finished third at the season-ending Andalucía Rally to clinch the title.
While he did not return to the W2RC in 2023, he raced various rallies in Morocco during the year like the Carta Rallye, Morocco Desert Challenge, Baja Morocco, and Addax Rally. He fractured his clavicle at the MDC which prevented him from racing for much of the summer
While Echiguer has dreams of racing the main Dakar Rally, he will enter the Africa Eco Rrace in the meantime; the 2024 editions of both races overlap in January. The fifteenth edition of the AER starts in Monaco, where the vehicles will then embark for Nador to later complete the twelve-stage, 6,000-kilometre route (plus a rest day in Dakhla) through Morocco, Mauritania, and Senegal, where it will end on the shores of the mythical Pink Lake.
Article written in collaboration with Youssef ML of Rally Raid Spirit
