The Rallye des Pharaons (French for "Pharaohs Rally") was a
rally-raid
Rally raid is a type of off-road motorsport event competed with different types of vehicles. Along with shorter baja rallies, rally raid constitutes cross-country rallying. Both the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) and Fédérat ...
event that took place in
Egypt
Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...
between 1982 and 2015.
Cairo
Cairo ( ; , ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Egypt and the Cairo Governorate, being home to more than 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, L ...
was both the starting and finishing point at the foot of the
pyramids of Giza
The Giza pyramid complex (also called the Giza necropolis) in Egypt is home to the Great Pyramid, the pyramid of Khafre, and the pyramid of Menkaure, along with their associated pyramid complexes and the Great Sphinx. All were built during th ...
, and the rally covered roughly around . It was similar in format to the
Dakar Rally
The Dakar Rally () or simply "The Dakar" (), formerly known as the Paris–Dakar Rally (), is an annual rally raid organised by the Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO). It is an off-road endurance event traversing terrain much tougher than convent ...
in that it took place in desert conditions and cars, trucks, and motorcycles were all permitted to compete.
History
The first Pharaohs Rally was held in 1982 from an idea of
Jean-Claude Morellet Jean-Claude is a French masculine given name. Notable people with the name include:
People called Jean-Claude
* Jean-Claude Ades, an Italian electronic music producer
* Jean-Claude Alibert (died 2020), a French racing driver
* Jean-Claude Amiot ( ...
. In 1998 the organization was taken over by JVD, a company managed by
Jacky Ickx
Jacques Bernard Edmon Martin Henri "Jacky" Ickx (; born 1 January 1945) is a Belgian former racing driver, who competed in Formula One from to . Ickx twice finished runner-up in the Formula One World Drivers' Championship in and , and won eig ...
, Vincenzo Lancia and Daniele Cotto, and the name was changed to Pharaons International Cross Country Rally.
The competition is valid for the
FIM Cross-Country Rallies World Championship
The FIM Cross-Country Rallies World Championship was the premier championship of Rally raid racing, organized by the Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme
The International Motorcycling Federation (Fédération Internationale de Motocycli ...
since 2000 and for the
FIA Cross-Country Rally World Cup
The FIA World Cup for Cross-Country Rallies was a rally raid series organised by the FIA, culminating with a champion driver, co-driver, and team; with additional trophies awarded to T2 and T3 drivers & teams.
History
Starting with the 2011 seas ...
since 2005.
Tragedy struck on September 29, 2004, when three-time Dakar Rally winner
Richard Sainct was killed when his motorcycle ran off the course.
KTM, who Sainct rode for, pulled all other factory racers from the rest of the rally in respect for Sainct.
2015 marked the last year that the event was run due to difficulties in receiving support from the
FIA and the Egyptian government.
Rally des Pharaons restarted in 1998 after it wasn't held for 1 year in 1997 under the name of Rally of Egypt with joint organisation of Siag Travel with JVD and has stayed with this name in 1998-1999-2001-2002, and then JVD changed the name to Rally des Pharaons crosscountry.
Winners
References
External links
Rallye des Pharaons Website{{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211216203153/http://pharaonsrally.com/ , date=2021-12-16
Rally raid races
Motorsport in Egypt
FIA World Cup for Cross-Country Rallies races