Once a racer, always a racer. But after racing the Dakar Rally in January 2020, it all pretty much backed off for me. I finished 13th in that race, which was a great result and offered me some redemption for having DNFed the previous year. But after that the world changed with the pandemic, and then being so busy with work and life for the past couple of years, any hopes of racing Dakar again dropped off the radar.
But … I had been keeping in contact with some of Yamaha's racing bosses in Europe as I have a good relationship with those guys. So when I started getting random text messages from them saying they still had me in mind for ‘future projects’, it left me wondering what might be on the horizon. I guessed it would involve the Ténéré 700, but I really had no idea and didn't think too much of it.
LAUNCH CONTROL
Then earlier this year things started to ramp up. One of the real big bosses at Yamaha Racing reached out to let me know the new manager of Yamaha's new Ténéré Spirit Experience program would be getting in touch with me. “Stand by, Rodney,” he said. So I did.
When I got the call, it was all rather straight to the point: “Bonjour, Rodney. We are going to the Morocco Desert Challenge and we have a spot for you. Can you commit to coming? And can you let us know in the next three days?” Click. What the?!
