Many thanks to John Davenport who wrote for us this text and collected the data of the palmares table.
In 40 years of direct involvement in motor rallying, John Davenport has been a co-driver, team manager, organiser, journalist and author.

The "Rallye du Maroc" has a long and distinguished history.

It was created in 1934. Starting in 1925, there were touring car races at Casablanca and in 1934, a Grand Prix won by Louis Chiron driving an Alfa Romeo Tipo-B "P3".
Little is known of the 1934 event except that a M.Bravard driving an Essex won it.
This American car featured such innovations as four-wheel brakes, detachable wire wheels and an automatic starter.
The man who had won the Monte Carlo Rally in 1934 and again in 1939, 1949 and 1951, Jean Trevoux, came to Morocco in 1935 and 1937 and both times was victorious at the wheel of a Bugatti 3-litre.
Then the war intervened and the fourth event was not held until 1950. The start and finish were in or near Casablanca, and the bulk of the action was in the Rif, Atlas Mountains and open spaces of the steppe. As rougher, gravel roads started to form the basis for the Rally, so did the winning cars change. Jean Lucas won in 1950 with a Ferrari 212 but by 1955 it was Jean Deschazeaux in a Peugeot 203 who won.

The International Rally was revived in 1967 and Robert La Caze in a Renault R8 Gordini, won this tenth edition. Jean-Pierre Nicolas with the same model won again in 1968 .
By now, the Rally was concentrating on the tougher challenges of the south. Renault, Citroën and Peugeot were all interested since they knew that winning in Africa – Peugeot had already won the East African Safari four times – soon converted into new car sales. In 1969, Citroën came with their DS21 and Bob Neyret won outright. In fact, it was a Citroën-fest as second overall was Guy Verrier and third was Jean-Claude Ogier both with a DS. Nicolas finished fourth with his R8 Gordini. Patrick Vanson, in another DS21, was fifth.

One feature that has endeared the Moroccan Rally to competitors and journalists alike is that it always throws up stories of adventure and endurance that just do not emerge from conventional rallies. For the 1970 event, there was a clash of dates between the Moroccan Rally and the World Cup Rally from London to Mexico via Yugoslavia, Portugal and then Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Peru, Colombia, Panama and Central America. Citroën was committed to the Big Event and it seemed they might miss defending their title in Morocco. But when the Word Cup arrived in Lisbon the cars had to go by ship to Rio de Janeiro. This took just over a week. Citroën´s team manager, René Cotton together with Bob Neyret and Jacques Terramorsi flew to Casablanca instead of Rio. They drove their DS21 in the Moroccan Rally while still in the middle of another one. They won for the second year despite a multiple entry by Renault. Second overall, was another DS21 crewed by Bernard Consten and Jean Todt, now the President of the FIA.

The FIA had decided to create the International Rally Championship for Makes. It was first run in 1970 with the Safari as the only rally included outside Europe. It expanded to include the Moroccan Rally in 1971 and it stayed one of the rounds until this championship was elevated in status to the World Rally Championship in 1973.

There was no immediate rush by manufacturer teams to add the Moroccan Rally to their annual schedule and in 1971 it was basically a fight between Citroën and Peugeot with DAF, on the sidelines. One change was that the rally now had to follow certain rules regarding the cars it could accept as entries. This time Citroën´s newcomer, the Maserati V6 powered SM won. Its driver was Jean Deschazeaux, the man that had won in 1955. His judgement on just how much punishment a car could take, on dusty, sandy and rocky tracks his skills enabled him to win by over an hour from the second placed Guy Chasseuil in a Peugeot 504. Consten was third and Neyret fourth, both in Group 2 DS21s.

Bt 1972, there was wider interest in the Moroccan round of the IRCM with Lancia sending a car for Simo Lampinen, Citroën with three SMs for Rauno Aaltonen, Björn Waldegård and Jean Deschazeaux plus four DS21s, Peugeot with four 504s for Jean Guichet, Tony Fall, Hannu Mikkola and Guy Chasseuil, and Alpine Renault with three A110 for Jean-Luc Thérier, Jean-Pierre Nicolas and Ove Andersson. Now there were top-class drivers fighting hard to win right from the start. The reasons for retirement were many: punctures, broken transmissions, ruptured suspensions, electrical failures, and even a fire. But the result was that, despite leading initially, all three Alpines retired as did the SMs and all the 504s. This left the lone Lancia Fulvia of Lampinen to win by half and hour from Neyret in his DS21. The result went against the odds and the fact that only six cars from the fifty-two starters were classified as finishers did much to enhance the reputation of the rally.

The following year, the Moroccan Rally became one of the thirteen events that comprised the inaugural FIA World Rally Championship for Manufacturers. Lancia were creating their Stratos and stayed away but rivals Fiat arrived with two Abarth 124 Spyders for Waldegård and Aaltonen. Ranged against them were teams from Alpine, Citroën, Peugeot and Renault. This time, the honours went to the French. Bernard Darniche drove a superb rally to win in an Alpine A110 leading Bob Neyret with a DS23 by eighteen minutes. In third place, and the only other driver with Darniche not to lose points at time controls, was the Austrian Richard Bochnicek driving a DS23. The Peugeots retired, save Claudine Trautmann who finished tenth of the twelve finishers and won the Coupe des Dames in a Peugeot 504. Waldegård finished sixth.

The Moroccan organisers planned an even tougher course for 1974. Their event clashed with another endurance rally, the London-Sahara- Munich. This attracted Citroën and Peugeot and left Renault and its now wholly owned partner, Alpine, who took all the top places in Morocco. Jean-Pierre Nicolas won in an A110 while Jean-Luc Thérier drove a Renault 17 Gordini into second place.

The 1975 rally had over 100 entries with three major works teams vying for success. These were Opel with Walter Röhrl and Rauno Aaltonen in Asconas, Fiat with Bernard Darniche, Markku Alén and Björn Waldegård in Spyder Abarths and Peugeot with Hannu Mikkola, Timo Mäkinen and Bernard Consten in 504s. The list of semi-works cars was much longer still with Citroën supporting Ponnelle and Deschazeaux Peugeot taking Aseptogyl toothpaste sponsorship to run four pink cars for ladies crews. Bob Neyret had an ex-works Alpine A110, Shekhar Mehta an ex-works Datsun.

This event had just nine special stages. They totalled some 2,000 kms and four of them were over 200 kms – one of which was a colossal 786 kms. This was THE classic Moroccan Rally, the one by which all the others are remembered.

No one was free of problems and even the winner, Hannu Mikkola had a struggle with his 504. Peugeot had learnt a hard lesson and had reaped the benefit of new suspension and transmission developments by winning the Safari Rally, three months earlier with a 504 driven by Ove Andersson. Consten was second, almost two hours behind Mikkola while Mäkinen was fifth and Marianne Hoepfner was seventh and won the Coupe des Dames. Citroën grabbed a fourth place for Deschazeaux. Veteran Bob Neyret came home ahead of him with the Alpine A110 to take third place and maintain an enviable record in Morocco – two wins, two second places a third and a fourth in seven years of competing.

The 1976 event again attracted more than a 100 entries Ford came with two Group 4 RS 1800 Escorts for Timo Mäkinen and Roger Clark. Fiat was there with their new 131 Abarths. Lancia sent a lone Stratos for Sandro Munari. Citroën, now under the guidance of Marlène Cotton following the death of René in 1971, had a CX2200 for Deschazeaux. Tony Fall was driving one of two British-entered Opel Kadetts. Peugeot came with a big team comprising a V6 504 Coupe for Mikkola and five 2-litre 504s. Fiat and Peugeot slugged it out over a Transmarocaine stage of almost 800kms. This time it started out on tarmac for 75 kms before running to Irherm, Taliouine and Tazenakht then swooping south to Foum-Zguid and the finish at Rizzani. The almost astonished winners in what were considered to be outpaced cars were Nicolas and Lampinen, both past winners in Morocco and thus experienced in the pace required to survive the toughest rally in the WRC.

There was no Moroccan Rally in 1977. However, an event with such a powerful history and reputation was bound to resurface. This happened in 1985. After one year, the new Moroccan Rally became part of the FIA´s African Continent Championship.

The twentieth Morocco Rally run in 1985 used many of the old stages, especially those in the desert. It also ran two night sections.
The seventeen special stages were modest in length with the longest at 465 kms. There were nine over 100 kms. The winner was Shekhar Mehta in a Nissan 240RS coming home an hour ahead of second placed, Olivier Tabatoni, in a Citroën Visa Mille Pistes and a similar car driven by Eric Chanriaux, third.

In 1986 the Moroccan organisers decided to do away with stages altogether and run their rally as open road sections in the manner of the Safari. The rally was based in Marrakech in late October. It comprised three loops out from that city and the final leg to Casablanca for the finish. The only Group B car on the event, a Nissan 240RS driven by Alain Ambrosino took the honours winning by over three hours from the BMW 325i 4x4 driven by the Belgian Geeraerts, brother and sister crew.

In 1987, the entries were up to forty-two but there the good news ended. Horrific storms hit the Atlas Mountains the night before the rally. Only seven of the original thirteen "difficult" road sections were run. Officials had to be airlifted to their controls by helicopter. The winner was Maurice Chomat in a Citroën Visa Mille Pistes who managed to keep his car ahead of Mohammed Bin Sulayem´s Ford Sierra Cosworth. Third was Paul-Emile Descamps in another Mille Pistes.

For 1988, in an attempt to find better weather, the rally was moved back to late July, but this was too hot. The start was moved to Casablanca with the finish at Marrakech. It lost Bin Sulayem´s Sierra when the engine blew up just after the first 'difficult´ section. This left the field open for a pair of Opel Manta 400s prepared by Guy Colsoul in Belgium and rented out to local French drivers. Apart from some startling performances from the Belgian Flory Roothaert, a double winner of the Himalayan Rally, and on this occasion driving an ex-works Nissan 200SX, the two Opels were largely unchallenged.

It is now more than twenty years since this rally was last held.

A way has been found of once again bringing rally cars from the classic period of the original rally to Morocco and driving them on the fabulous roads that exist in and beyond the Atlas Mountains. For this we must thank Surinder Thatthi and Paul-Eric Jarry for a chance to participate in the 24th "Rallye International du Maroc".