A few years ago, Don Hatton was an overweight insurance broker. Today, he has sold his insurance company, dropped 40 pounds and is an athlete in training. He owns Duncan Motor Sports and is pursuing his dream of racing in the Dakar Rally.
First, a little history for those who don’t know what the Dakar Rally is. The Dakar Rally is an annual off-road automobile race, organized by the Amaury Sport Organization. Since its inception in 1978, the Dakar Rally has hosted races that go from Paris, France, to Dakar in the Republic of Senegal, a country in western Africa.
About 550 amateur and professional racers are accepted to race in the Dakar Rally each year and there are different classes for bikes, cars (which range from buggies to small SUVs) and T4 trucks. This is a very dangerous race that consists of crossing varying terrain including sand dunes, mud, camel grass and rocks.
Sometimes racers will cover 900 kilometres in one day—and this goes on for several days. In 2008, the Dakar Rally was cancelled for the first time because of terrorist threats, which caused great upset for both participants and spectators. In 2009, the rally was relocated to Argentina and Chile where it is also being held in 2010.
Living a dream
Hatton has lived in Duncan, B.C., all of his life and has been riding motorbikes for as long as he can remember. Racing in the Dakar has always been a dream of his, and in 2007 he decided to follow his heart and do it.
To prepare for the race, Hatton worked out for nine months, travelled to Death Valley, California, to train and entered a six day off-road race in Morocco, Africa, where he placed 25th—an impressive standing against some professional racers.
“In 2007, I decided to do this rally,” said Hatton. “In 2008, I put the team together to go to the Dakar rally in Lisbon, Portugal, and I flew the team down. Just before the start of the rally, they cancelled it because of terrorist attacks so we all had to fly home.”
Although this was a huge letdown for Hatton, he decided not to give up and entered the 2009 Dakar Rally in South America. The sign-up fee for the Dakar Rally alone is $25,000 but for Hatton the experience was worth more to him than money. He was accepted and flew a full team with a support vehicle, motorcycles and mechanics for the price of $300,000 to Argentina.
Setting out with determination
The race took place as planned and Hatton began the race with the support of his wife and son along with his friends from Vancouver Island. Being one of the most dangerous races in the world, only 33 per cent of racers reach the finish line and 60 racers have perished in their quest to complete the Dakar Rally. While Hatton did not die, he did crash his motorcycle on the fourth day of the race and was severely injured.
“I was doing 135 kilometres an hour when I crashed,” said Hatton. “I broke eight ribs, my sternum, lacerated my lungs, pulled my heart partially out of my chest cavity, separated both shoulders and tore all the tendons in both shoulders.”
Although Hatton said his brain is still scrambled from the crash, he is recovering from the horrific accident and is training again for the 2010 Dakar Rally. This year, he is planning on racing in Egypt and Morocco and at the Dakar Rally. While Hatton knows that the Dakar will be a tough grind, it is something he has been working towards for years.
“It is going to be really gruelling,” said Hatton. “You ride about 14 hours a day…and every day there are a hundred reasons to quit the rally but you just have to keep pushing your way through it and keep going.”
An inspirational goal
It takes a special kind of person to have the determination, dedication and desire to see the Dakar Rally through to the end. When asked what inspires Hatton to continue on his quest to race the Dakar Rally, he is hard pressed for an explanation—he just knows that he wants to do it and is willing to do anything to make it happen.
“I can’t really tell you where (my desire) comes from,” said Hatton. “But it’s been a passion of mine since I watched the first Dakar Rally on TV 30 years ago. I just knew that I could do it and I started training. I am a pretty determined guy and I don’t want to quit—you just learn to dig down. Every day when you come through a day that was really difficult, you are so proud of yourself that you made it through and you can’t wait to do it again.”