Team Rally Raid Canada > Rally Racer Don Hatton

Greetings Team Rally Raid Canada fans:

I am writing this from Buenes Aires where I am waiting the arrival of my team.

Thought I would let you know how I feel about no longer being in the Rally, I was very upset and was unable to comment earlier.

In short I am angry and very sad at the same time, the Dakar Rally is an event where everything has to go in your favor in order to finish, unfortunatley this year I was not so lucky.

It seems that nothing went my way, right from the beginning; with three months to the Dakar I broke my hand, my bike arrived 1 1/2 months late to Canada, I contracted the swine flu and had to deliver the bike for shipping while very very sick, my tire order not arriving at all.

I think the Dakar Gods were sending me a message and I was not receiving it.

At risk of sounding like I am feeling sorry for myself here is a summary of my 2010 Dakar Rally.

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Following his Dakar experience, Don provided the following audio update:

Don’s post-Dakar report, courtesy of RallyRadio

Team web guy Dave O’Sullivan, who has been writing most of these updates and posting them on the legacy site (www.destinationdakar.ca), supplies us with more details on Don’s day.

Early this morning, Don left the start area without his time card, which he didn’t realize until he was flagged down by another competitor after about 80km. He had to race back to the start to get his card, but it wasn’t that simple.

When organizers indicated they were not going to give him the start card, much back and forth discussion ensued. Don asked “what does this mean” and the organizer told him that he was out; the rally was finished for him. Don refused to give up, so more discussion, then they phoned the head of the FIM and after a lengthy phone conversation he ruled that Don could start.

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Don made it through a hot, and longer than expected day, in good spirits and ready to go for tomorrow.

After a very early start, Don realized after riding 89km that he’d forgotten to pick up a time card. He rode back to retrieve it, where he was told he wasn’t going to be able to continue. Arguing he could still get to the special for his alloted start time, he plead his case, eventually getting the officials to make a call to their superiors. Eventually, Don was allowed to continue and head back out on the liaison.

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