This year’s Budapest-Bamako started with a record number of participants

A Wartburg was even blessed by a priest at the start, the 40-year-old East German vehicle may need the help of the heavens to reach the finish line in the Budapest-Bamako rally.

This year, 1,102 competitors will start the Budapest-Bamako, which is an incredibly large number. This is twice as many as in this year’s Dakar, so much has never happened before. There are participants from 54 different countries, 60 percent of them are foreign and there are a lot of interesting faces

– said András Gál Szabó, alias Géza Villám, the dreamer of the competition.

One of the most extreme figures is a real Norwegian Viking, who already introduced himself at the competition’s press conference. The man started growing his huge beard at Bamako in 2018 and hasn’t cut it since.

Géza Villam dreamed up the low-budget rally, also known as the fly race, 18 years ago. He also made a documentary about the most recent competition in 2022. THE From rust to glory documentary can now be seen exclusively on RTL+.

This rally was really born to show the world that there is no need for HUF 30 million car miracles, no need to spend a lot of money. All it really takes is a sense of adventure and a few simple things and you can do this rally, you can get to the heart of Africa

said Géza Villam

This year’s route is more than 9,000 kilometers long and leads through several West African countries, with the final destination in Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone.

The start was opened by Senegalese drummers, and then the craziest vehicles and their drivers rolled onto the podium one after the other. The most special team came straight from Africa to the start in Budapest, only to travel home from there. You can also watch them in the video!