The 2014 Rallye Aïcha des Gazelles Begins

Considered the most prestigious all-women’s motorsport event in the world, 318 women from 25 countries took the start line for the 2014 Gazelle Rally, including four American teams.

Considered the most prestigious all-women’s motorsport event in the world, 318 women from 25 countries took the start line for the 2014 Gazelle Rally, including four American teams.

Dominique Serra started the Rallye Aïcha des Gazelles in 1990 as proof that women can cope in any situation, and to challenge the stereotype that women and the automobile are not compatible. “I could launch a challenge to knit, but I’m not sure it would have the same effectiveness,” she said. Twenty-four years later, the race regularly draws 160 teams.

The rally is split into three class groups: 4x4s, crossovers or SUVs, and ATVs; all three categories follow a different route, but pass the same checkpoints. Each morning, the teams are given coordinates of the day’s checkpoints and finish line, which they navigate with just a compass and a map; the difference between the distance driven and the direct line between the checkpoints is the day’s score. Teams win by driving the least amount of kilometers. With rudimentary navigation equipment — even binoculars are banned, as well as following another team’s course – the event has been said to be more grueling than the Baja 1000 or the Dakar Rally and many have say is the hardest thing they’ve ever done. “The ultimate moving chess game,” media liaison Kirsten Kuhn describes.

Four teams from America will be competing this year. Number 107, Team Hoehn, are sisters from San Diego who recently graduated from Dartmouth College: Jo Hannah majored in art history while Susanah Hoehn studied Roman archaeology. Their family business counts a Range Rover dealership among their 11 franchises; consequently, they will be driving a Range Rover Sport, wrapped in Moroccan tile motife.

JoMarie Fecci, of Team 171, spent most of the 1990s as a photojournalist during conflicts in Eastern Europe and the Middle East. In 1998, she was one of the first Americans to cover southern Lebanon during Hezbollah control. She teamed up with her navigator, French schoolteacher Isabelle Nikolic, in 2006 on a documentary about Darfur; the two have been embarking on road trips ever since. The pair will be driving a Jeep Wrangler, a vehicle they’re more than familiar with: the duo once drove 10,000 miles across America.

The Xelles of Team 182 are from Bozeman, Montana, and will be driving for Voice Today, a charity that helps sexual abuse victims. Driver Rachelle Croft, navigator Rhonda Cahill, and their husbands take part in a reality Web series called “Expedition Overland,” where they negotiate the Top of the World Highway from Alaska to Yukon in Toyota Land Cruisers.

Team 183, is Indiana Joans. This is the team’s second year running the rally: driver Emme Hall races Volkswagen desert races for Mega Monkey Motorsports. Navigator Sabrina Howells splits her time acting and playing in her band. This year, the team will run an Isuzu D-Max pickup truck with butterfly stickers representing survivors of breast cancer.