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Eve-Ann Prentice talks to two drivers preparing for 19 days of rallying hell

‘This is not just a motor race, it is an education’
For the next 16 days, Keith Parker and Dick Partridge will go to extremes.  In temperatures ranging from below freezing to more than 130 deg F the Suffolk adventurers will race for up to 800 kilometres a day in some of the most inhospitable terrain on Earth.
The pair, from Ipswich are the only Britons taking part in the 11,000 Kilometre Dakar rally in northern Africa, one of the most gruelling and dangerous events in the world’s motoring calendar.  Originally the Paris-Dakar rally, the event now starts and ends in the Senegal capital, although the entrants only learn the exact route as they go along.
After several deaths in the rally’s 19-year history, the event is being diverted well away from minefields and political troublespots this year.  There have also been changes in the technical regulations, aimed at reducing the importance of big budgets and high-performance vehicles.
Which is all good news for Partridge, 40, who is making his fifth attempt in the rally.  He has never got beyond the halfway stage before.
He and Parker, who is making his second appearance as Partridge’s navigator in the event, have spent the past year preparing an Isuzu Trooper to cope with shifting sands and stinging winds in the wastes of the Sahara.  They have little or no back-up and must undertake all the maintenance work themselves.
“What I really want to do is finish,” says the indefatigable Partridge, who was stranded for three days in the Tenere desert, hundreds of miles from civilisation, on his second Dakar attempt.  “We have spent about £20,000 buying and preparing the vehicle, we have no one to help us when we are out there.”
Although Partridge and Parker face a struggle against the Sahara’s sand dunes, they will be driving on a more competitively level playing field this year.  High finance will no longer have such an edge as mechanics following richer teams in chartered planes will only be allowed to service these cars every three or four days.  Turbos are also barred this year, and new minimum weight restrictions have been introduced.
A vast medical and rescue team has been deployed to follow this year’s event in an attempt to safeguard the competitors in a rally which has not only claimed more than its share of lives over the years but which consolidated its reputation with the death of its founder.  Thierry Sabine and four others were killed in a helicopter crash while following the rally in Mali.  The event is now run by Sabine’s father.  This year, 30 aeroplanes, eight helicopters, teams of doctors and fleets of ambulances will be on hand to rescue those who fall by the wayside.  “This is not just a motor race, it is an education,” says Partridge.  “It is an overwhelming experience and we want to give it our best shot.” 
He and engineer, Parker, 42, face coaxing their Isuzu across dried-up riverbeds, potholed tracks and the sheer emptiness of the desert in the fierce heat of the day.  Then, as temperatures plummet to below freezing at night, they must repair the ravages of the day, queue for fuel and food, put up a tent and study the route for the next day’s section.  If they are lucky, they may be able to snatch a couple of hours’ sleep.
So why do they do it?  “Where else in the world of motorsport can we line up with the former stars of Formula One and world rally champions, as well as others in our position, in a situation where everyone is fighting against the conditions and not just each other?” says Partridge.  “Where else can we test ourselves to the limit of our endurance, at the end of our tethers, knowing that losing our composure is a sure recipe for disaster?”
Partridge’s first taste of motorsport came when he began go-karting at the age of 13.  He bought his first speedway bike at 16 and went on to Weymouth and Eastbourne before quitting at 21 to set up a garage business.
At 25, Partridge fulfilled a long-standing ambition and learnt to fly.  His competitive streak soon came to the fore when he began entering aerobatic contests.  He was runner-up in the 1986 Scottish Open Championship and came second in the annual points table the following year.
The lure of motorsport soon became paramount again, however and Partridge sold his plane to pay for his first entry in the Dakar rally.  Parker’s association with Partridge goes back to 1981, when the engineer went to work for him, helping to establish a dealership, workshop and MOT test centre at his garage.
In 1984 he set up his own business, through which he helped prepare Partridge’s vehicles for domestic rallies.  His first taste of the ravages of the Dakar event came when he helped restore the Isuzu Trooper following its recovery from the desert in 1989.  Two years later he followed the rally in the mechanics plane, only to see a transmission failure put Partridge’s vehicles out of action.  Parker coaxed the Isuzu back to England by road from Southern Libya.