OK, here’s a story we didn’t expect to see in 2023! Former Dakar racer Joan Pedrero Garcia says he is planning to challenge the Africa Eco Race in 2024. No surprise there, as many former Dakar riders end up at that event. But his choice of bike is something we didn’t expect—he’s taking a Harley-Davidson Pan America!
Check out the announcement below, from his Instagram page:
View this post on Instagram
Roughly translated from Spanish, it’s your usual “Thanks to everyone who’s helping out with the race” message, as you usually get from sponsored racers.
Rally collab with H-D
The big question now will be: What are the chances that Joan Pedrero Garcia can actually pull this off, and finish in one piece? And the answer is that based on previous races, he might actually do pretty well on the machine. Working with Harley-Davidson’s Spanish subsidiary, he has been running a Pan America 1250 in rally raid-style events for years now. Just over a year ago, Pedrero finished the 1000 Dunas Rally Raid on a bike that was supposedly bone-stock. As you can see below, the bike did not sail through the desert with the aplomb of a 450:
However, he did finish that event, and also proved the machine’s capability in other events. Now, the Africa Eco Race awaits, perhaps as the ultimate challenge. Remember that while the Dakar Rally now runs entirely inside the borders of Saudi Arabia, thousands of miles away from its Paris-to-Dakar route, the Africa Eco Race runs roughly parallel to that original desert track, and it allows machines outside the rigid FIM classes, machines like this Pan America 1250! We look forward to seeing just how well it does. This year’s Africa Eco Race starts on December 30, and we can’t wait to see how this year’s event plays out.
