Over the weekend, the third La Route des Légendes ran from Versailles to Sète. It isn’t a competitive event, but still took vintage rally raid cars, trucks, and bikes down the same French trails used by the early Paris–Dakar Rallies before heading to Africa.

Speaking of Africa and old-school rally raids, Agadir on Monday hosted the start of the inaugural Rallye du Maroc Classic.

The Classics are a new addition to the RdM program for 2026, following the same regulations as the Dakar Classic (and even offering a trophy for those who race both). While the FIA and Open cars didn’t take part on Monday, the Classics provided some four-wheel action in the Prologue alongside the bikes and quads.

Tecnosport got the ball rolling early as Filippo Colnaghi and Taz Harvey finished first and second in their Nissans. Colnaghi’s Patrol racked up 14 points ahead of Terrano driver Harvey’s 16, which was tied with Pierre-Louis Berrier’s Porsche 964. The top three cars are all competing in Group H2 for moderate average speed vehicles.

Lorenzo Fluxá, fresh off a seventh-place finish in the RallyClassics Africa the week prior, won the H3 class (intermediate average speed) in his Toyota Land Cruiser KZJ95. He, Brahim Ettaiek (28th), and Fluxá’s teammate Luis Antonio Pires (finished 29th) were the only drivers from RallyClassics who stuck around for the RdM. Ettaiek is competing in the main rally’s Open Auto class with a modern Can-Am Maverick X3 while Pires finished 19th overall and sixth in H3 with his KDJ95.

Davide Facchini was initially entered as an H3 car before being reclassified to H4 for the highest average speed. His Mitsubishi Pajero easily cleared the Porsches of Paolo Fellin and Javier Vélez in 16th and 17th, respectively.

Helen Tait Wright had a scare leading up to the race because of a terminal clutch problem on her 1988 Land Rover 110. TD5 clutches are rare in Morocco, so the Gazelles had to wait for a Land Rover owner from Zagora on the opposite side of the country to make the six-hour trip with a replacement. With the new clutch, “Purdey” made the start and finished 20th overall.

2022 Dakar Classic winner Serge Mogno is tasked with being the rapid assistance car for Nantes Prestige Autos’ Porsches, so him finishing 21st and last in the order isn’t a shock. That said, he had bigger fish to fry. His navigator Anis Meftah was found by stewards to have a Fédération Française du Sport Automobile license which only lets him do rallies with an average speed of under 50 km/h on open roads. Since the RdM Classic will go faster later down the road, Mogno and Meftah were allowed to do Monday’s Prologue but the latter is required to get an upgraded license before the #831 can rejoin the race.

On the time-and-speed side, Daniel Sanders beat teammate Edgar Canet by 12 seconds. Bruno Crivilin topped Rally2 in his maiden RdM, while Albert Martín topped Rally3 to secure the maiden W2RC stage win for Triumph on his TF 450.

Despite being just an 18-kilometer leg, ten penalties were doled out for missed waypoints. Antonio Ubis got four minutes added to his Prologue time while everyone else—Gonçalo Amaral, Wilfried Dagommer, Damien Gueno, Amnay Hajji, Sara Jugla, Suany Martínez, Tomasz Orwat, David Pabiška, and Alfredo Pellicer—received two minutes. Hajji’s just happy to be at the start and registered under the Moroccan flag after his extended nationality dispute with the Fédération Royale Marocaine de Motocyclisme.

“It was a little bit tricky with some quick notes, sometimes three or four notes per kilometer and some fast cornering,” Ricky Brabec said. He finished 13 seconds behind Sanders. “The WPPs made it a little more difficult, as you really had to make sure you got deep enough into the corner to validate them.

“Overall, the feeling is good. I went a little too far in a couple of corners and ended up in the bushes, but it’s all part of the Prologue. You’re risking a lot just for a start position. For now, it’s good to get the monkey off our back and set the tone for the rally.”

Stage winners

FIM

Class	Overall	Number	Rider	Team	Total Time
RallyGP	1	1	Daniel Sanders	Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	10:58.4
Rally2	5	69	Bruno Crivilin	Monster Energy Honda HRC	11:30.1
Rally3	47	175	Albert Martín	Triumph Spain	14:15.3
Quad	63	180	Antanas Kanopkinas	CFMOTO Thunder Racing Team	15:19.2

Classic

Class	Overall	Number	Driver	Team	Points
H2	1	827	Filippo Colnaghi	Tecnosport	14
H3	4	809	Lorenzo Fluxá	LJS Racing	19
H4	8	805	Davide Facchini	R Team	53

Featured image credit: Nantes Prestige Autos