When you're planning the world's most demanding rally and sending more than 100 competitors into what is alien territory for many, there is only one team you can rely on. If you are stuck in the desert, if no one else can help, and if you can find them, maybe you can hire the Sweep Team.
The organisers of the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge, an annual five-day race through the intimidating dunes of the Rhub Al Khali (Empty Quarter) and the opening round of the FIA's Cross Country Rally World Cup, knew who to call. The Sweep Team duly obliged and The Commander, Nobby, Streaky, Wrenchie, Scottie, Passy, Grumpy and their hand-picked mates turned up.
It's the mission of this crack commando unit to ensure that each day every competitor is returned safely to the rally's bivouac or desert base, a campsite at Moreeb in the Liwa region. And in the case of bikers who've had to abandon the race for whatever reason, it's also the Sweep Team's task to bring their bikes home on the back of a toast rack.
Just getting the stragglers home each evening sounds easy, but when you consider the logistics, it is far from it. A typical day's rally route will cover around 250 to 280 kilometres racing across awe-inspiring dunes towering hundreds of feet into the air, which is heated by the desert sun to around 48ºC in the shade, which is in short supply.
The Sweep Team is made up of just 11 vehicles, split into four groups, which start out from different points along the rally route. Two of those vehicles are Nissan Patrol-based flatbed pick-ups, each modified to carry four motorcycles in special metal frames installed across the bed, hence the term ‘toast racks'. The rest are the team's own personal 4x4s, all heavily modified to withstand the rigours of dune bashing at high speeds.
No one is paid for the week they spend rescuing injured and dehydrated competitors, and major service bills for the vehicles after the event are not uncommon.
So why do they do it? Why volunteer for five 14-hour (or longer) days of stomach-churning dune driving, dashing from one stricken competitor to another? Sweep team manager John ‘Commander' Mitchell Ross, aka "JMR", explains, "For me it is being an integral part of an amazing motorsport event that's second to none. For the appreciation - at times - from grateful competitors when a recovered bike is taken back to the bivouac in time for them to race the next day. And I'm working with a fantastic group of like-minded individuals within the Sweep Team, search-and-rescue crews and competitors alike. Those five days in the desert away from the stresses of my job are hard work but enormous fun."
For team member and former Desert Challenge bike competitor SteveDessurne, having a sense of humour playsa vital part in dealing with the long hours in the sun. "Of course there's the joy you see on riders' faces when they see you coming over the sand to rescue them - but we love taking the mickey out of them for breaking their machinery. And when we're giving them a lift out, they just have to sit and take it!"
Sometimes the competitors do tend to bring the laughs on themselves. On Day One of this year's race, Sweep Team One came across an incident just a short distance into the first stretch of sand. Ian "Grumpy" Greaseby, also an experienced bike competitor who changed sides and joined the Sweep Team in 2007, explains, "One rider, who'd best remain nameless, turned up with absolutely zero sand riding experience. He'd gone about 10kms on gatch track and then rode full pelt into the dunes. Less than 400m later he'd fallen off and when I got to him he asked: ‘How much further do I have to go in this stuff?' Well that was easy, I told him: ‘Oh, today, I'd say about another 250km.' His eyes rolled back and he just gave up on the spot. We took him back to the start and that was it. Haven't seen him since!"
Still, he'd made it further than the Italian competitor in 2006 who was awarded the Team's "Lawrence Least Kilometre Award" after blowing his engine seven kilometres into the first day's stage.
Another moto competitor, the wonderfully named Stefano Dalla Valle, was picked up twice on successive days by Sweep Team Three, the surprisingly conventionally named Sean and Colin, plus Streaky, aka David Chambers. Stefano endeared himself to the team this year when, clearly taken aback by the speed at which their cars were crossing the desert, spending as much time in the air as they did on the ground, he turned to Streaky and asked: "Tell me, in ze correct eenglish, how do I ask what is today's in-flight movie?". With a name and sense of humour like that, Stefano's definitely Sweep Team material.
Meanwhile over on Sweep Team Two, race veteran Alan ‘Passy' Passmore, was reprimanded on Day Four by Race Control, which watches all the support vehicles movements from a high-tech command centre provided for the race by Dubai Civil Defence. The command centre is equipped with satellite tracking screens, displaying the position, speed and heading of racers and the Sweep Team. So what was Alan's crime? Apparently he and team mates Wrenchie Wright, Scottie and JT were guilty of driving too fast. Instead of trailing the bikers, they were getting ahead of them, but Alan laughed off his rap across the knuckles, "Aren't these guys supposed to be the professionals? If their race speed is slower than my cruising speed in a 4x4, maybe they need bigger bikes". Still Sweep Two slowed down - ever mindful that their role is to take care of the bikers, not showing them up!
Drivers Nigel ‘Farmer' McReynolds and rookie Adnan ‘No tools' Iqbal, bring up the rear guard of the Sweep Team and are consequently no strangers to driving through the desert at night. However on Day Five they were tasked with keeping a close eye on 18-year-old German rider Tony Schattat who was competing in his first rally alongside his father Thomas, an experienced Dakar competitor. Tony struggled all week in the conditions, was suffering from the effects of sunburn and had sprained both wrists during the earlier days of the event. He battled on to the third of five passage controls under the watchful eye of the Sweep Team, before sensibly handing in his time card and taking the tarmac road to the official finish.
"That's what it's all about really, we've all the time in the world for riders like Tony — guys who are determined to get there but who maybe need a helping hand once in a while" says Passmore. As Dessurne concludes, "[It] makes it all worthwhile, getting someone to the finish line".
They may be an irreverent bunch, but if you were stuck on your own on the crest of a dune, who would you rather see turn up in their 4x4s to pull you off - Keira Knightley and Scarlett Johansson, or Streaky, Grumpy and Nobby?
Like special forces the world over, you can't just volunteer for the Sweep Team, you've got to be invited and, of course, made of the right stuff. It's all very well being able to drive at great speed in enormous sand dunes, but having enough responsibility - and the stomach - to deal with serious medical emergencies until the paramedics reach the scene, and being able to recover vehicles from seemingly impossible positions in the sand, is most important. Unless you enjoy working 14 hours a day under a blazing sun for five days with no salary, living on a diet of energy drinks and pies, chances are you just haven't got what it takes. Mind you, having a silly nickname might at least get you an interview.
