|
| Vehicle |
|---|
| MODEL | MAKE |
| 525 DRS | KTM |
| RANKING |
|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | ||
| Scratch | 182 | 140 | 158 | 153 | 136 | - | 96 | 129 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| Stage | 182 | 140 | 158 | 152 | 141 | - | 110 | 128 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| Overall | 182 | 150 | 150 | 150 | 149 | - | 136 | 132 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
“I just want to get down to the desert and get going…”
Self-professed ‘petrol head’ Philip Noone is about to embark on the journey of his life when he takes to the Argentina Chile Dakar 2010. The Dún Laoghaire man will represent Ireland in the most extreme off-road motorcycle race in the world, known simply as ‘The Dakar’. But the simplicity of the name doesn’t match the extremity of this tournament, which as Philip says is ‘not for the faint-hearted’.
‘For surfers there is one big wave in the world you want to ride, for off-road bikers Dakar is the race you really want to do’, says Philip.
Noone has been racing off-road motorbikes since the age of 11 and has competed in many events, including the Irish and British Enduro Championships and the International Six Day offroad event in which some of the world’s greatest endurance racers compete against each other. But for Philip Noone, competing at the Dakar has been a life-long ambition.
‘I have dreamt of doing this race since I was 18 and there is never going to be a “good time” to do it so I decided 2009 was the one to bite the bullet and give it my best shot’, he says. Unfortunately a second blown engine on stage 9 put and end to his 2009 Dakar but that as Noone says is endurance racing and will not deter him to go back and do Dakar in 2010.
‘I just want to get down to the desert and get going… my wife worries when I race but she appreciates the fact that it is my passion and has always has been 100% behind me in all my racing endeavors’, he says.
He also hopes to keep racing in the family and plans on passing on his skills to his young son. ‘I have one son a boy of four and half years old and lucky for him he is too young yet to ride an off-road motorcycle or I would have him out practicing with me’, he says.
With only two months to go, Philip has cranked up the training regime. ‘I’ve been doing resistance training three days a week in the gym and then practicing on my racebike as much as possible outside of this’, says Philip.
Financially the trip is a massive undertaking and costs in the region of 50-60 thousand euro per man to compete. The Irish Dakar entrant has seven sponsors to date and has chosen the Simon Community as the chosen Charity for the 2010 race.
www.teamdakarireland.com.
 Dakar start photos on line: www.maindruphoto.com |
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