July 28, 2019 – They were the first people to cross the Sahara in a Tesla last year, and the Crazy Gang have reunited to take on Put Foot Rally 2019 in southern Africa.
Early last year, two dear friends, Sasa Cvetojevic and Oleg Mastruko, picked me up for the motorway entrance near Varazdin and drove me to Budapest. A small part of me thought that I would never see them again.
The reason for the journey was that they were attempting to become the first people ever to drive a Tesla through the Sahara Desert on the Budapest to Bamako Rally. Given that the range of a Tesla is about 400 km and the Sahara a little longer than that, I genuinely thought they were nuts.
I decided to interview them before the trip, as I wanted to have some memories for their unborn grandchildren about what Adventurer Grandad was like.
I went with them to Budapest for the start of the rally, then watched their journey into the Sahara and beyond. They were accompanied by a third member of the team, from Czechia, Tomas Ceh Bez-Fejsa.
And they did it! incredible achievement.
The crazy three guys are now back in Africa and joined by a fourth member, Marin Frcko. They are taking part in the 2019 Put Foot Rally across six countries in southern Africa. The official website describes the rally like this:
Is it a race? NO…
Is it a test of survival and endurance? MAYBE…
Is it an EPIC African Adventure with challenges around every corner, wild animals, deserts, canyons, mountain ranges, forests, lakes, oceans and national parks… a chance to meet great people, experience different foods, cultures and traditions the most incredible opportunity to see the very best of Africa?
You can get a flavour of the rally from this great video overview from a previous participant, who looks a little more attractive than our Tesla Saharan heroes.
The four will be divided into two teams – Oleg and Marin in Fat Buryats powered by BOSCH, Sasa and Tomas in Foot Rally Africa Powered by RWE.
The rally starts in Cape Town, before heading into Namibia, Botwana, Zambia, Malawi and Mozambique, with the possibility of ending in Eswatini (formerly Swaziland) if they don’t make it that far.
There will be regular updates on the two team Facebook pages above, and you can learn more about the rally from the official rally website.
