The Tetris-like puzzle behind the World TT Championship race.
If you’ve ever gone camping with your family, you know what a hassle it is to set up and take down the tents, the bags you have to carry, and all the gear you have to pack away. Now imagine the logistics at a campsite with over a thousand people, where the tents house not only people but also work areas, cars, and motorcycles. This is exactly the challenge that ACP Logistics must solve at the service park for the bp Ultimate Rally-Raid Portugal.
To an outsider, the complexity of an event like this might go unnoticed. But for Nuno Vieira, General Manager of Logistics and Bivouacs, and his Logistics Manager, Diogo Nunes, this complex game of Tetris is part of their daily routine. Coordinating a team of 30 people, Vieira is responsible for putting all the pieces in the right order on the ground.
The preparatory work begins long before the engines start up, with track layout managers Orlando Romana and Jaime Santos—Race Director and Safety Officer, respectively—ordering the supplies their own teams will need. But it’s also necessary to fulfill requests from the catering, media, service park, and security teams, as well as everyone else involved in the competition.
Countless preparatory visits are carried out, contacts with suppliers are established, and structures are designed in detail so that nothing goes wrong. Another key aspect is the coordination between the Automobile Club of Portugal’s logistics team and the 120 competing teams, as each has different needs. From the space they will require to electrical outlets and access points for team members, everything must be discussed in advance and replicated for each service park.
At the bp Ultimate Rally-Raid Portugal, which features technical zones in different locations, the logistical effort is also tripled, with logistics divided according to their specific roles between Grândola, Badajoz, and the Algarve Stadium. The strategy is to divide and conquer. Setup work in the Alentejo town began nearly two weeks before the start of the race and only concluded after the bivouac was abandoned and the area cleared.
At the conclusion of the bp Ultimate Rally-Raid Portugal, the ACP logistics team gathers to review what happened on the ground. And so, the wheels start turning again, and with just under a year to go until the next race, preparations are already underway to make the event even more successful.