In Egypt's desert, French Jean-Louis Schlesser took the 2011 Pharaons Rally for the second consecutive time in the two-wheel drive, Ahmed Morsy reports In front of the Giza Pyramids, the 29th World Pharaons Rally 2011 came to an end after the participants completed the final phase, stage 6, of the six-day event on Saturday. In the two-wheel drive category, the French driver Jean-Louis Schlesser won the title for the fifth time and second in a row to prove he is one of a kind. With this new success, team Sonangol Schlesser takes at the same time the 2011 world title in the two-wheel drive category, one stage before the end of the championship. The 63-year-old Schlesser has now collected more than 200 motorsport victories, half of them in cross country rallies, mainly in Africa. There were two memorable Dakar wins and thee in Africa's Eco-Race. To these, add eight World Cup titles, after which one understands that for "the boss" the legend is written on the black continent. From the second stage of the rally, Schlesser and his Russian navigator Konstantin Zhiltsov took the lead and also control of the race. The first stage was signed by Russian driver Vladimir Vasiliev, all five others go to Schlesser, who took an impressive advantage each time. The remaining drivers became exhausted trying to catch up to Schlesser and made mistakes, including Boris Gadasin, who rolled his G-Force Protoover in the last stage. Jun Mitsuhashi (Toyota) comfortably finished second overall, with a big gap over third. Gadasin suffered a mechanical problem in the stage that forced the Japanese-French crew to withdraw. The result of the vehicles category of the 29th edition of Pharaons Rally was totally unexpected: Schlesser- Zhiltsov followed by Vadym Nesterchuk-Laurent Lichtleuter in their Mitsubishi L200 and G-Force�s Gadasin-Shchemel third. "I am very happy with this second consecutive victory in Egypt," winner Schlesser said. "We can tell it was totally flawless, but I can say that it wasn�t easy all the time. I must go through some difficulties, kilometre after kilometre, focusing on the race all the time. "The least mistake could change everything. In addition, Konstantin did a great job and his skills were required every day because navigation was a crucial issue. The track of this edition was varied in the most positive sense. "This victory makes me happy for me and my team and my partners whose confidence I am thankful for. The next stage, for me, will be the fourth edition of the Africa Eco Race." From 27 December to 8 January Schlesser will enter the fourth edition of the Africa Eco Race between France and Dakar, an event he has won three times. But in 2012 he will have to face strong competition. In the same two-wheel vehicle category, the Egyptian Rahalla team, led by his driver Tarek El-Erian and navigator Mohamed Ali, finished a surprising second which tallies their points in the world championship to second place directly behind Schlesser. Throughout the history of the sport it is a unique achievement for an Egyptian team. In the motorcycles' category, Marc Coma has triumphed in the sand once again with his fifth victory in the Pharaons Rally in Egypt adding yet another title to his collection. The 35-year-old Spanish rider also won in 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2010. Coma took the lead the entire week and kept it until the end. Helder Rodrigues, winner of the last stage, held his ground as well. Rodrigues and Coma finish even in the number of victories, three stages each, but the Spaniard now adds a new record to his profile. Following this new victory in Pharaons, Coma's fifth victory passes Fabrizio Meoni, who held the record. Pharaons 2011�s overall standings for motorcycles was led by Coma followed by Rodrigues and Jakub Przygonski in third place. Rodrigues signed his first success in the World Championship, which was only the honor of Cyril Despres and Marc Coma. In the final standings of 2011, Przygonski has 78 points and Coma (absent in Tunisia) has 75 points acquired in three victories: Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge, Sardinia and Pharaons. "As far as I can remember this was the hardest edition of the Pharaons. That makes the victory all the more important for me and I am very pleased to have won the title again," Coma said. "We managed a good pace and we could also approach the second half of the race quite calmly because of the 14-minute advantage. I am happy about the bike and the progress we made with it during the rally. It was also a challenge to maintain concentration because of the high level of the technical demands of the rally. It was physically hard, but it was good training for the next Dakar. I think that we can all be very happy, as all members of the team did a fantastic job." In the open motorcycle, the Italian rider Stefano Truckee triumphed while the French Lillian Anslliver won in four-wheel motorcycles quads. The Ukrainian team, consisting of Marco Biana, Christoph Truche and Jaroslaw Caprock, won in trucks. The World Pharaons Rally 2011 was held under the patronage of the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and supervised by the Egyptian Tourism Promotion Authority, Automobile and Touring Club of Egypt "EATCE", Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) and Fédération Internationale de Motocylisme (FIM) in cooperation with the Egyptian Federation of Motor Sports (EFMS). This year, around 610 racers technicians and administrators participated from Italy, France, the Ukraine, Switzerland, Belgium, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, the UK, Denmark, Holland, the US, Japan, Argentina, Uruguay, Venezuela, Chile, New Zealand, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Egypt). The entries included 76 vehicles and four-by-four trucks; 95 motorcycles; 45 administrative and technical support trucks; two observation and monitoring helicopters; and one large mobile hospital equipped with all medical supplies required for conducting surgical operations, with 25 medical staff. It took place in six phases with a total distance of 2,799km. Phase 1 (432km) began from the Pyramids Panorama to the rally's actual starting point at Kilometre 98, on 6 October Road, in the Bahariya Oasis. Distances of Phase 2 (Bahariya- Bahariya), phase 3 (Bahariya-Farafra), phase 4 (Farafra-Farafra), phase 5 (Farafra-Bahariya) and phase 6 (Bahariya-Cairo) are 525km, 467km, 437km, 527km, and 411km respectively.
