All teams must report to registration at the Charge location for sign-in, collection of pledges and fitting of GPS Tracking Devices between 11:00hrs and 15:00hrs on Friday.
Each team will be scrutineered, issued with sponsors material and fitted with a GPS Tracking Device.
At scrutineering, vehicles will be checked for the items listed under ELIGABILITY AND EQUIPMENT above.
Scrutineering for bike teams will include a check for suitable personal protective equipment for each rider. Each rider should report to scrutineering with all their equipment.
A Driver’s Briefing will be held at 17:00hrs on Friday. At the briefing each team will be issued with a course map showing the location and giving the coordinates of each checkpoint and the HQ.
Each team will also be given their starting checkpoint by random draw and a route card which must be carried on the charge. Depending on their starting checkpoint, each team will be informed of their convoy letter (A, B, C etc) for the following morning.
Teams should study the map to decide on their route (checkpoints can be completed in any order) and identify the Tsetse-lines and Gauntlet.
On the race day, Saturday, teams will proceed to a designated assembly point near HQ by 05:30hrs. At the assembly point, teams will gather in their respective starting convoys – identified by convoy letter (A, B, C etc). They will then proceed in convoy to their Starting checkpoints by following an escort vehicle. Competitors will be started by the marshal at their checkpoint at 07:00 prompt.
Vehicles at each Starting checkpoint will be mass started, and teams will then choose their own route within the restrictions given elsewhere in the regulations, and may visit checkpoints in any order.
Teams must park their vehicles within the marked area at each checkpoint. At each checkpoint teams must have their Route Card filled in and signed by the Checkpoint Marshal.
Teams will only be judged to have visited a checkpoint if their Route Card is filled in and signed. Teams presenting an incomplete Route Card at HQ will be given a result of “DNF – Did Not Finish”.
A bike team will only be judged to have reached a checkpoint once the last bike in the team arrives. Bike teams may not leave the checkpoint until the last bike has arrived and the Route Card has been completed.
As a safety precaution, teams are required to declare their next intended checkpoint at the start of each leg. This is to enable the organisers to keep track of vehicles throughout the day and to monitor the progress of each vehicle in order that a search can be immediately called if any vehicle becomes unduly delayed on any leg.
In the interests of safety, the Clerk of the Course may instruct a Checkpoint Marshal to hold an entrant who is intending to commence a leg which could not possibly be completed before the end of the Charge. This decision will be made individually in each case by the Clerk of the Course, and their decision will be final.
There will be two Tsetse-lines on the course. These are legs between two checkpoints where a straight line traverse includes particularly challenging terrain. Teams do not have to complete the Tsetse Lines.
The Tsetse-lines will be identified during the Driver’s Briefing.
Special awards are made (and much respect gained) for the team with the shortest distance achieved for each of the two Tsetse-lines.
Three of the checkpoints on the course will together comprise the Gauntlet. To finish the course all teams must complete the Gauntlet. The Gauntlet checkpoints will be identified in the Driver’s Briefing.
Teams may traverse the Gauntlet by whichever route they choose and the Gauntlet checkpoints may be visited in any order but once started, teams must complete the Gauntlet before proceeding to any other checkpoint.
The distance traveled through the Gauntlet will be multiplied by three when calculating each teams total distance over the course.
To finish, each team vehicle must visit every checkpoint – in any order – and then return to their starting checkpoint making a complete circuit.
All the bikes and riders in a bike team must complete the course for that team to be considered to have finished.
The Charge finishes at 15:00hrs. Checkpoint Marshalls will not endorse Route Cards after this time and teams who have not completed a full circuit by this time will be recorded as “Did Not Finish”. All teams must report back to HQ as soon as possible after 15:00hrs on race day.
Teams who do not visit every checkpoint or do not return to their starting checkpoint will be marked “Did Not Finish” in the results.
Each team’s course distance (including the multiplied distance through the Gauntlet) and time is measured for the complete circuit from starting checkpoint back to starting checkpoint via all the intermediate checkpoints.
Having completed the course each team must return to HQ and check-in by returning their completed Route Card and have their GPS Tracking Device downloaded and removed from the vehicle.
Teams who do not report to HQ after coming off the course cannot be given a result or placing and will be recorded as “Did Not Finish”.
Failure to check-in at HQ will also trigger a search for that vehicle. It is therefore very important that, even in the case of an early retirement during the day, teams register with HQ as soon as they can after completing the event.
The winning team will be the one who completes the course in the shortest distance as determined by the Clerk of the Course.
The official results announced at prize giving are final and no challenge or discussion of the results or awards will be entertained.
