Name: James Alexander
Age: 50
City and Country of Residence: Maun, Botswana 🇧🇼🇧🇼🇧🇼.
Dakar 2020 Class: Original by Motul (Malle Motto).
Race number: TBC
Married: No, single.
First Dakar?: First Dakar will be Dakar 2021.
What made you want to do the Dakar?: Love of motorsport especially off road bikes.
Highlights: Finishing Kalahari Rally and Desert 1000 in 2019.
Lowlights (if any):Injured in first Ironman SA.
Any significant achievements?: Ironman SA and NZ plus Cape Epic 2014.
Besides Dakar, anything else on the bucket list: Another Dakar !
Your biggest inspiration: Ross Branch.
Your biggest supporter(s):All my MTB mates in Maun.
Please provide your plan for Dakar 2020:
Brand of bike: KTM 450 Rally Replica.
Who will be your support at Dakar 2021:My girlfriend Theda but being Malle Moto then me.
Main sponsor?:Monster Energy Botswana
Other sponsors? (Clothing, helmets – anything goes):Tswana Fuel, Time Projects, OWS, Great Plains, Natural Selection.
Promotional events planned before Dakar 2020:Meeting everyone in Gabs this weekend 31 October 2020.
What you will be doing for fitness, practice, seat time: Swimming, Core Training, Cycling, Riding.
Anything else of interest?:
James Alexander, a passionate 50 year old Motorsports enthusiast from the Little Village of Maun, Botswana, has taken on the grueling task of competing in the Dakar Rally 2021 in Saudi Arabia. The Rally runs for 13 days through Saudi Arabia’s harsh, uncharted territory. James will be competing on a KTM 450 Rally Replica in the Original by Motul class. He will be competing throughout with no backup. All repairs to his bike will be done by himself in-between stages. We will be following James throughout his journey to the finish line on the 15th January 2021. Go get ‘em James! Make Botswana proud!
I’ve been accepted into what’s called the Original by Motul Class. This is the old Malle Moto class and these words literally mean “box bike” and is the toughest form of doing Dakar. We get a lot for this entry with Motul supplying all oils, the Malle or box, workshop area and sleeping gear. The organizers ASO look after us with the bivouac, catering, free fuel and medical cover. We operate on our own sorting the bike ourselves at night with only the other riders in our group allowed to assist us.
Just recently I have signed up with BAS Racing a Dutch outfit who are the next biggest KTM team to the factory one at Dakar. I will be renting one of their 450 Rally Replicas as it turns out to be too prohibitive to build and ship (Covid 19) my own bike from here. These Replicas are built to a very high standard and this also gives me access to the BAS team regarding advice and spares back up. It’s like I have a team there to rely on for advice and parts but just must do the work myself on the machine.
I am very fortunate to have Ross Branch (Botswana’s Kalahari Ferrari!) as my mentor for the event. He is now a full world Yamaha factory rider and his advice and experience is a huge benefit to me. I will travel Covid permitting with Ross to Jeddah in Saudi Arabia towards the end of December 2020. I will spend some time getting used to my bike and acclimatizing to the area. I will also receive training on the stripping and familiarization mechanically of the bike with the team. Documentation and scrutineering happens on the 1st and 2nd of January and the event runs from the 3rd to the 15th of January 2021.
The race covers some 10000km made up of liaison (transport stages) and competitive stages. There is a great website www.dakar.com and gives a great wealth of information on this iconic race. It began in 1979 and from the age of 9 I have followed it. Now at 50 I have finally a chance to realize the dream of actually competing in what some consider to be the toughest motor race there is!
I am putting in some serious training and Ross as my mentor, in conjunction with his huge self-belief, is a massive boost for me. We have already been to Khawa in the south of Botswana for dune and road book training. We will be going to Guma and Namibia (Covid permitting) in the beginning of November for 10 days of further dune and road book training. Other than that I am on a serious fitness program involving cycling, swimming, core training and many hours on the dirt bikes.
The budget to cover my Dakar 2021 is around P550 000 and any assistance from companies and individual will be most appreciated. I wish to try and get as much awareness and interest that we can for this great race. In so doing I would also like to get as many people on board as we can to assist us with sponsorship.
Should anyone wish to offer sponsorship, please contact Hayley +267-73947176 or myself +267 72 647 586.
Thanks for following! I hope to do Botswana proud! 🇧🇼🇧🇼