Help get Willem to the Morocco Desert Challenge
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Road to Dakar: Help get Willem to the Morocco Desert Challenge
How far would you go to chase your dream?
My name is Willem Avenant, and I have a dream to one day race in the biggest, toughest, and most demanding off-road rally race in the world: the Dakar. But the road to Dakar for me leads through the second biggest rally in the world: the Morocco Desert Challenge in September 2021. And to do that, I need your help. I have a passion for rally and I want to share it with you.
While racing the Morocco Desert Challenge, I will bring you along for the ride and put out frequent videos and clips of every day, making you part of my journey and sharing the adventure with you. You’ll get an exclusive opportunity to see the world’s second biggest rally race up close and personal, walk the bivouac with me, experience the spirit of a rally, and get a rare behind the scenes view of the race through my lens.
I’m starting a GoFundMe campaign because it doesn’t just take a village, it takes a tribe to get to a rally race like the Morocco Desert Challenge, and your donation will not just help me get to Morocco - it will also help to tell and share my story to the world.
Whether you are able to support me or not, I want to thank you in advance for reading this far. And I look forward to taking you along for the ride!
Why Rally?
Rally racing is an extreme sport that requires focus, skill, and commitment like very few other disciplines. Doing this sport on a motorcycle makes it just that extra bit more difficult, as you do not have a navigator, and thus have to navigate the route and race over the terrain by yourself. There are no marked courses, arrows, or ribbons: it’s just you, your roadbook, and the desert ahead.
I have ridden motorcycles since I was a wee lad. One of my fondest memories is watching Dakar updates on TV at night at the start of each year with my dad as a young boy... little did I know that the seed for a lifelong quest was already being planted!
I love rally racing because it strips us down to the bare basics. It challenges us on a level you don't find in everyday life anymore. It shows you what you’re truly made of and how much you can endure!
Most people can ride a bike fast, fewer can ride a bike fast well (with skill), and even fewer - a select group of people - can ride a bike fast with skill for a prolonged period of time (days on end), while navigating new and unknown terrain and simultaneously facing a myriad of challenges and hardships like lack of sleep, mechanical issues, navigational issues, exhaustion, and fatigue. Those people are rally racers.
Rally racing combines focus, endurance, skill, perseverance, and passion into one fluid action, distilling us to who we really are. If you want to see a person's true character, go and have a chat with them in the middle of the night in a bivouac after five or six days of tough racing when they have not slept more than a few hours and their bike is broken. Then you will see what kind of person he or she is. In rally you can not hide from yourself, and you can not hide your personality from other people, either.
The Challenges
Despite these great advantages the sport offers, one of the biggest obstacles to the sport is the prohibitive cost of racing (the actual entry to the event, travelling to the event, preparing for the event, the specialised rally bike, etc...) Up to this point I have competed quietly on the South African rally circuit, coming 7th overall in the Kalahari Rally of 2018 and 2019, as well as 3rd in the Tankwa Rally of 2019, and taking several class wins in the recent local Western Cape Off-Road Series. However, in order to move on to the next step and the international stage, I need your help!
I am an ordinary person. I have a family (who fully support me in what I do, for which I am very thankful), and I have a small business. However, I am not a full- time professional racer, making it close to impossible to find any kind of financial support.
This is where you come in: I would like to ask you for your support in this massive endeavor. I know 2020 was a tough year, and that I must seem a little crazy asking for financial support in such tough times! But we also need some good news. If I am successful I will be the first South African in the world to complete the Morocco Desert Challenge, currently the second biggest rally in the world, on a motorcycle. This is surely some good news that we can all “rally” around, as we are all sick and tired of the doom and gloom of the last year.
Your help and support will be truly appreciated. Your donation will go directly towards helping me fund this dream and
How far would you go to chase your dream?
My name is Willem Avenant, and I have a dream to one day race in the biggest, toughest, and most demanding off-road rally race in the world: the Dakar. But the road to Dakar for me leads through the second biggest rally in the world: the Morocco Desert Challenge in September 2021. And to do that, I need your help. I have a passion for rally and I want to share it with you.
While racing the Morocco Desert Challenge, I will bring you along for the ride and put out frequent videos and clips of every day, making you part of my journey and sharing the adventure with you. You’ll get an exclusive opportunity to see the world’s second biggest rally race up close and personal, walk the bivouac with me, experience the spirit of a rally, and get a rare behind the scenes view of the race through my lens.
I’m starting a GoFundMe campaign because it doesn’t just take a village, it takes a tribe to get to a rally race like the Morocco Desert Challenge, and your donation will not just help me get to Morocco - it will also help to tell and share my story to the world.
Whether you are able to support me or not, I want to thank you in advance for reading this far. And I look forward to taking you along for the ride!
Why Rally?
Rally racing is an extreme sport that requires focus, skill, and commitment like very few other disciplines. Doing this sport on a motorcycle makes it just that extra bit more difficult, as you do not have a navigator, and thus have to navigate the route and race over the terrain by yourself. There are no marked courses, arrows, or ribbons: it’s just you, your roadbook, and the desert ahead.
I have ridden motorcycles since I was a wee lad. One of my fondest memories is watching Dakar updates on TV at night at the start of each year with my dad as a young boy... little did I know that the seed for a lifelong quest was already being planted!
I love rally racing because it strips us down to the bare basics. It challenges us on a level you don't find in everyday life anymore. It shows you what you’re truly made of and how much you can endure!
Most people can ride a bike fast, fewer can ride a bike fast well (with skill), and even fewer - a select group of people - can ride a bike fast with skill for a prolonged period of time (days on end), while navigating new and unknown terrain and simultaneously facing a myriad of challenges and hardships like lack of sleep, mechanical issues, navigational issues, exhaustion, and fatigue. Those people are rally racers.
Rally racing combines focus, endurance, skill, perseverance, and passion into one fluid action, distilling us to who we really are. If you want to see a person's true character, go and have a chat with them in the middle of the night in a bivouac after five or six days of tough racing when they have not slept more than a few hours and their bike is broken. Then you will see what kind of person he or she is. In rally you can not hide from yourself, and you can not hide your personality from other people, either.
The Challenges
Despite these great advantages the sport offers, one of the biggest obstacles to the sport is the prohibitive cost of racing (the actual entry to the event, travelling to the event, preparing for the event, the specialised rally bike, etc...) Up to this point I have competed quietly on the South African rally circuit, coming 7th overall in the Kalahari Rally of 2018 and 2019, as well as 3rd in the Tankwa Rally of 2019, and taking several class wins in the recent local Western Cape Off-Road Series. However, in order to move on to the next step and the international stage, I need your help!
I am an ordinary person. I have a family (who fully support me in what I do, for which I am very thankful), and I have a small business. However, I am not a full- time professional racer, making it close to impossible to find any kind of financial support.
This is where you come in: I would like to ask you for your support in this massive endeavor. I know 2020 was a tough year, and that I must seem a little crazy asking for financial support in such tough times! But we also need some good news. If I am successful I will be the first South African in the world to complete the Morocco Desert Challenge, currently the second biggest rally in the world, on a motorcycle. This is surely some good news that we can all “rally” around, as we are all sick and tired of the doom and gloom of the last year.
Your help and support will be truly appreciated. Your donation will go directly towards helping me fund this dream and
getting to Morocco, paving the way to the Dakar. It would also be my privilege to give you in-depth view of my journey along the way.
Stay in the loop and follow me on:
Facebook - WillemAvenant282
Stay in the loop and follow me on:
Facebook - WillemAvenant282
Organizer and beneficiary
Willem Avenant
Organizer
North Windham, ME
Julie Avenant
Beneficiary
