Carta Rallye 2025 :Plage Blanche, on the edge of the oued to the north, where the sea breeze carries its salty scent inland. The view overlooks the ocean and the waves that endlessly crash onto this vast wild stretch of sand over 40 km long. Only a few rare tourists come here to bivouac, seemingly without disturbing the bird colonies and the few fishermen and their huts.
So it is here, 250 km south of Agadir, in the Cherifian Kingdom, on a small promontory, that the organizers of the 2025 Carta Rally have arranged a meeting point for the various teams and drivers who will take part in the race.
For now, the race atmosphere hasn’t kicked in yet, but Chris Harmelin’s teams are anything but idle—it’s the “relative” calm before the storm. The camp is being set up: team tents, the kitchen—everything is coming together in this stunning setting. The medical team is doing final equipment checks, managing the Starlink connections to stay permanently linked to race HQ for optimal safety. The first transport trucks carrying 4x4s, buggies, motorcycles, and SSVs have arrived and are unloading gear, with the pits slowly taking shape.
The bivouac is a staple of rally raid culture, and this one will no doubt offer a total change of scenery for competitors, immersing them directly into the warm Moroccan atmosphere.
Chris Harmelin tells us about his rally
At the start of the Carta, I met the chief of a small village between Taourirt and Debdou who made some abandoned buildings available to me. We refurbished them, and the first competitors came—just friends really—we were about 18. We even hired a few locals. A friend paid for the fuel so we could return. That was in 2014.
In 2015, for the second edition, I still liked that region, so we went back. We started the rally in Debdou. Many people pass through there, but few stop—it’s just at the base of the Rekkam plateau. We used an old boarding school for accommodation, fixed up the toilets and showers, and women from the village came to cook. There were about a hundred of us. After the first stage, we even had a hammam for the competitors.
I’ve been coming to Morocco for 40 years—I love it here, I have many friends, and only positive experiences. With rally organization, it hasn’t always been smooth (laughs), but in the end, all is well. Authorities are always available. I’ve worked with the FRMSA federation from the beginning, and recently also with the FRMM. We get great support from the tourism ministry and local authorities—we’re always well received. This is important for organizing, especially since many rallies take place in the same area at the same time. We try to avoid overlapping routes, but it’s hard with all the unofficial raids and rallies.
One of Carta’s unique aspects until 2023 was having two categories: the GPS Cup, which was point-to-point navigation with rankings based on distance, not speed—like an orienteering race. It attracted a lot of people and was super fun, but it became too much work to manage. I’ve since focused solely on the cross-country category.
Last year, we introduced the motorcycle category at the Carta Rally. We had four bikes in the 2024 edition, and now in 2025, we have 46. I think we’ve made a strong case there. We have a partnership with Ténéré Spirit Experience (they also partner with the Africa Race, which we’re close to—Jean-Louis Schlesser contacted me to send some of his clients when their 2023 event was canceled, which was an honor. We share a similar vision of raw rally raid with well-made road books and real bivouacs—that rally spirit). We’ve got a great lineup, including Benji Melo, who finished second at Dakar in the Malle Moto category. Many young riders active on social media are joining. Yamaha has top riders like Alessandro Botturi and Gautier Paulin, and we also have a Moroccan champion, Souleyman, who won the Rallye du Maroc. More Romanians are coming this year, too. There are now more international riders in the motorcycle category than in cars or SSVs, which are mostly French. Lithuanians are also participating. It brings some “new blood” to the rally, which is vital for the future.
I think the quality of the services and road books we offer, all within a reasonable budget (a helicopter costs around €90,000 a week), is a big draw. Everything has become more expensive since COVID. Our prices remain fair, and the mix of bivouac and hotel gives competitors the full rally raid experience with a touch of comfort.
We have a strong sense of camaraderie—every night, the staff and participants spend time together. We’re a small team of about 60–65 people including media, doctors (surgeon, ER doc, anesthesiologist), four ambulances, a helicopter with two doctors, and trained drivers for each ambulance who can handle off-road, each vehicle also with an ER doctor. Last year, a hand surgery was performed on-site while waiting for evacuation—it really helped the recovery. We also have a local Moroccan team to coordinate with local infrastructure and help with communication. They know all the local hospitals and clinics. For the dune sections this year, I’ve added a medical SSV for rapid dune interventions.
We have 7 stages, 2000 km of race specials, with minimal transit stages. We wanted a prologue, but due to the number of participants and administrative tasks, we won’t have time. However, there will be a shakedown area.
Another Carta feature is fuel stops every 120 km—for safety and to avoid competitors needing extra tanks. Honestly, it complicates logistics for us, but it allows us to check in with riders, make sure they have water, offer food. It’s a DZ (Drop Zone), with a 20-minute limit, for everyone. For SSVs, it helps reduce weight. We introduced this mainly for safety—to prevent sketchy “DIY” refueling. People were refueling while the clock ran, using gas cans—it was chaotic and dangerous. Now, everyone has to exit the vehicle; there are teams with fire extinguishers—no rush. It also levels the playing field between those with large tanks and those without. It reduces the risk of someone losing time to refuel and then driving recklessly to catch up. It’s especially relevant for motorcycles—it adds another layer of safety. For mechanical issues, if refueling is near a paved road, they can receive assistance. We try to have at least one quick-assist point each day, which is helpful for teams testing vehicles or prepping for major rallies.
This year, we’ll again have around 40 SSVs, teams like ZZ Kustom with 5 SSVs, plus Lithuanians, Bulgarians, 10–11 cars. Many drivers are gaining experience and opting for more comfort, switching to SSVs. Among the cars, we have two MDs, the Dunbees, a Tarek VW, and an SMG.
I’d like more variety in future rallies, and I’ll work on that—hit the road, meet international teams. I’m not pushing for the classic category—there are already passionate people doing that well, and it’s better for classics to run together without SSVs or modern vehicles.
There’s been a lot of development over the past three years, especially with Sébastien Delaunay joining and increasingly fast vehicles. We’ve imposed a 140 km/h limit for the ever-more-powerful SSVs. Seb designs very technical routes, which naturally slows things down. We put a lot of effort into creating technical routes and exploring new areas. There’s no point in just going straight for 30 km. I like to give Seb free rein—we set the basic outline (start/end points, total distance, terrain types), and he sends me the tracks. I completely trust him—his expertise and enthusiasm shouldn’t be limited. I don’t have pro co-driver experience—he’s done major FIA races, Dakar, in T1+ vehicles. His way of building a road book is on another level. As a co-driver, he brings real insight. We complement each other well, and have mutual respect—each doing our job to the best. We enjoy the final result. He also handles all the sporting aspects—I deliberately stay out of that. He has the experience of a sporting director who understands the consequences of every decision, and what is or isn’t fair.
The Carta 2025 lineup includes 46 motorcycles, 40 SSVs, and 10–11 cars. The rally caravan has around 320 people.
As for catering, we have Moroccan women cooking for us. A chef friend from France also comes to help. Many from the team work both the Carta and the Baja; some are new, but most return for multiple editions. It’s not always easy, but the team is solid—we rely on each other, even through the stress and heavy workload.
We also have Moroccan marshals from the Grand Maghreb club—very rigorous. I can’t imagine organizing without involving local Moroccans or employing people from the country. It’s part of my passion and love for Morocco. We need to respect that—we’re welcomed warmly here, and there are few places in the world where we can live out our passion like this.
Lastly, for the past three years, we’ve been using electronic road books. For safety, we work with Stella, which also supports the FIA Bajas, SCORE in the US, etc. It’s a great partnership—we have someone from their team on site, and they love working with Seb because his data is super precise. We also work with Terra Pirata for software, and we’ve really helped those young Portuguese developers evolve. Beyond tracking, there’s also the Sentinel system, which I believe is essential—especially when you have motorcycles and in rally raid in general.
