Pro Cycles in Geelong threw their collective weight into Andy Caldercott's Dakar campaign raising over $11,000 with a
charity auction on October 1. The four times Australian Safari Champion was ecstatic with the result but there's still
a long way to go before he can head off to the grueling race.
Caldercott was on hand to for the night and was ecstatic with the response, "Awesome, we came across here to Geelong
because Dormo (Dave Dorman) wanted to give us a hand and the whole crew has been great.
Dakar is rated as not only the most famous but also the most grueling of all desert challenges. Starting in Paris,
then heading south over the dunes of northern Africa to finishing the 4800km marathon enduro in Dakar, hopefully ahead
of some of the best long distance exponents in the world. Just to finish is no small achievement.
"It's an extremely expensive job. Just the logistics to racing in Europe or Africa are enormous. Obviously the more money
you've got the easier it makes it but I'm sure we'll get there one way or another. We did a budget at the start of the
year just to see what's needed. It would be really nice to raise somewhere around $100,000 or so and that's on top of the
motorcycle and everything associated. But as we said if we had sort of $60,000 then I think we would make it happen one
way or another. Entry alone is $21,000 and it'll cost you another $15,000 to take a mechanic. Then if you can't buy a
support vehicle you've got to buy a seat in some one else's truck which costs another $5,000 or so and the list goes on.
Fellow KTM rider, Kmart Racing's Greg Murphy was on hand lending support by offering a V8 Supercar 'Ride of your life' to
the highest bidder. "It's great to see what he's trying to do. He was saying to me before that if he doesn't try to do this
he'll regret it for the rest of his life," said the Supercar Champ. "If we can help him achieve his goal then that would
be great to see him do that. I'd love to go for a ride with him but I don't think I'd see much of him."
Other goods on offer were a Cyottee 50, KTM SX50, signed memorabilia, merchandise and a whole host of support from local business.
