NUMBER X: KTM – Gauloises
David Casteu (FRA)

First amateur with an overall place of 13th and winner of the Dakar 2005 Marathon category, David Casteu was subsequently offered a place in the raid rally World Cup by the official KTM Gauloises team. And the man from Nice did not spurn the opportunity, disputing four rallies during the regular season, two officially and two in a private capacity but with factory equipment, and gaining as many places on the podium into the bargain – 3rd in Morocco, 2nd in the Orient, 3rd in Egypt and 3rd in the Desert Challenge. This impressive consistency enabled him to finish as runner-up in the all-terrain rally world championship, just twelve points behind Coma. It represents a real success for this private driver, the real working-class hero of the bivouac, who was dubbed “the amateur world champion” by the great Jordi Arcarons at the end of this 2005 season.

Indeed, like the sorely missed Fabrizio Meoni, 31-year-old David Casteu is the archetypal amateur who has successfully broken into the closed world of the factories, without however forgetting his roots. Always available for his former old muckers, the erstwhile French Trial champion still doesn’t even regard himself as a professional, but only as a factory driver, as he continues to run the company Off Road 83.

Motivated above all by his passion for the raid rally and the pure pleasure he gets on the track, David Casteu goes into the Dakar 2006 with unique status within the KTM Gauloises stable. Neither water-carrier for the two main contenders for victory, Cyril Despres and Isidre Esteve Pujol, nor totally free, the Frenchman will play the role of a joker aimed at guaranteeing victory for a blue bike on the Dakar. He will perform this duty primarily alongside his friend Isidre Esteve Pujol, as Cyril Despres possesses his own water-carrier in Michel Gau. But one thing’s for sure: if opportunity comes knocking for David Casteu, this insatiable competitor won’t look a gift horse in the mouth.

David Casteu’s Dakar honours

2003 Dakar, 1st participation, 39th
2004 Dakar, 32nd
2005 Dakar, 13th, 1st amateur, 1st marathon, winner of the Elf Trophy

NUMBER 302 – Mitsubishi Motorsport
Luc Alphand (FRA) – Gilles Picard (FRA)

“Luc Alphand, the skier?” The questions provoked by the former skiing champion’s participation in the Dakar are becoming less and less frequent in the bivouac and more common in front of French television screens every January. In reality, while his first attempts were perceived more as a distraction than a golden transformation, it seems that a few years on, Luc Alphand is at last acquiring the status of rally driver in his own right, both within the caravan and among the general public. And if one takes a closer look, this delayed recognition has been down to his achievements en piste rather than any lack of driving ability.

For after a first fruitless participation in 1998, the 1997 downhill and Super-G world champion made the breakthrough at the following year’s Dakar by winning the T1 category ranking, claiming 16th place overall into the bargain. But just like his skiing career, which was often disturbed by heavy falls that prevented him from shining in Olympic years, “Lucho” proceeded to clock up a string of mishaps on the Dakar. In his first four participations, Alphand only reached the finish once, but he has stuck doggedly to what has been a steep learning curve. And in 2002, his perseverance was rewarded with a 7th-place finish, while the following year, he won the first special of his career at Luxor, demonstrating throughout the rally that the wisdom he was acquiring was combined with surprising virtuosity. 2004 proved to be the year of Alphand’s confirmation, as in his BMW X5 diesel, he went all the way to the foot of the podium with two new stage victories.

Immediately afterwards, the ex-skier was offered a place driving for the prestigious Mitsubishi stable, with the same vehicle as Stéphane Peterhansel. Between Barcelona and Dakar, Alphand showed on several occasions that he possessed the attributes to worry the race leader. “Lucho” was also the only driver not accused of being outclassed by “Peter” when he came in second, less than half an hour behind. Having well and truly shed any lingering doubts in 2005, Luc Alphand, the winner this year of the Tunisia rally and the Baja rally in Portugal, has emerged as the double title winner’s number one rival.


Luc Alphand’s Dakar honours

1998 First Dakar participation. Abandoned
1999 16th, Grenada-Dakar (winner of Dakar T1 category)
2000 Abandoned, Dakar – Cairo
2001 Abandoned, Paris - Dakar
2002 7th, Arras-Madrid-Dakar (winner of T1 Diesel category)
2003 9th, Marseilles – Sharm-el-Sheikh (winner of a stage and the Proto Diesel category)
2004 4th, Clermont-Ferrand – Dakar (winner of two stages)
2005 2nd, Barcelona – Dakar (winner of a stage)

Co-driver: Gilles PICARD (FRA)

- Former endurance driver for Husqvarna, Cagiva and Yamaha
- Winner of the Dakar as co-driver of Jean-Pierre Fontenay
- 2nd overall in the Dakar as co-driver in 2003 and 2004

NUMBER 356
Christopher Hammond

Christopher Hammond’s January was all planned out. He had envisaged spending three weeks going from bivouac to bivouac, in his capacity as assistance manager for the Bowler Spirit team. But until he received a phone call from Eva Toleson one month before the start of the Dakar, he had surely never imagined himself in the seat of a racing car, his foot hovering over the accelerator in anticipation of the stewards’ signal.

Nevertheless, it is precisely in such a role that Christopher is preparing to experience his first Dakar. “When Eva called me, I accepted on the spot,” he emphasises. “But immediately after hanging up, I asked myself how on earth I was going to be ready in time.” Since then, Christopher has been far from idle. In fact, what with the preparation of the car, the search for a capable co-driver and the administrative procedures needed to obtain visas, he has scarcely had a minute to relax. “Luckily, my rally knowledge and the experience gained as Bowler Spirit assistance manager in Tunisia meant I was able to sort out the technical aspects pretty quickly ,” he explains, before underlining that he primarily relied on friends to put together his project. “I chose Terry Banyard as my co-driver for two reasons. The first and best one is that he’s an old friend who I trust implicitly. The second is that he is multi-skilled in terms of navigation, mechanics, and driving. I know that together, we’ll have what it takes to make a decent fist of it.”

So despite the urgency with which Christopher Hammond has had to get his project up and running, he has opted to play it safe in order to get as far as Dakar and return next year even better prepared. Because before the race has even started, he already feels he has “got the Dakar bug.”

NUMBER 506 – DAF DE ROOY 2006
Jan De Rooy (NED)
Dany Colebunders (Bel) – Robert Van Den Broeck (Ned)

At the ripe old age of 63, Jan De Rooy, one of the last survivors of the Sabine generation, is the Dakar’s very own “last of the Mohicans”. The founder of an international transport company, the Dutchman made his debut on the Dakar back in 1981 and has since experienced joy and pain in more or less equal measure. Having represented his national make DAF from the start, the entrepreneur from Son gradually got better and better before finally triumphing in 1987. What’s more, this victory would have been accompanied by a scratch time, ahead of all the cars, if he had not incurred a 10-hour penalty after going to the aid of Vatanen, himself eventually a winner that year! This twist of fate might have seemed like déjà vu for Jan De Rooy, as two years earlier, despite dominating in his category from the start, a puncture and a penalty had deprived him of the last-but-one special.

His success on the track notwithstanding, it was his outrageous vehicle mountings that earned Jan De Rooy his renown and led to him being dubbed “Mad Max”. For with two double-turbo engines developing almost 500 hp apiece, two eight-speed simultaneously controlled gearboxes and twin motor axles, his famous DAF TurboTwins were capable of competing with the fastest vehicles. But after his prototype’s accident in 1988 when his navigator lost his life, it was the Dutchman himself who put a stop to this escalation by withdrawing his entire team from the rally.

It took Jan De Rooy 14 years to get over this tragedy before returning to the Dakar in 2002. Now accompanied by his sons Gerard, initially alongside him, then at the wheel of his own truck, Jan has reached the podium on just one occasion. But let the opposition take note: the Dutchman has been studying his recent participations in depth in order to make his DAF even more reliable so as to at last be able to rival the Kamaz. And he’ll be giving it his best shot before handing control of the racing team to his son, as he has already done with the family business.

His driving honours in the Euromilhoes - Dakar

1982 67th overall, Paris – Dakar
1983 34ème overall, Paris – Dakar
1984 abandoned
1985 2nd overall, Paris – Dakar
1986 abandoned, Stage 15, Paris – Dakar
1987 1st overall (11th in the scratch), Paris – Dakar
1988 withdrew from rally
2002 6th overall, Arras – Dakar
2003 4th overall, Marseilles – Sharm El Sheik
2004 Abandoned, Stage 8, Auvergne Region – Dakar
2005 6th overall, Barcelona - Dakar

Mitsubishi are big players in the Dakar. The three-diamond logo will be turning up in Lisbon with the supreme record for victories (10 titles, including the last five), not to mention the presence within their ranks of the winner of the last two editions, Stéphane Peterhansel. With road lieutenants of the calibre of Luc Alphand, Hiroshi Masuoka and Joan “Nani” Roma, the representatives of the Japanese firm will be the main focus of attention and expectation on the caravan. However, in the bivouac and on the track, the drivers and managers are in tune with the continent where they are guests, in touch with the harsh realities of Africa.

For since 2003, “Mitsu” has been working in partnership with the charity Mécénat Chirurgie Cardiaque Enfants du Monde, which offers help to children mainly in the countries through which the event passes. The active principle is simple: to allow children with heart defects to be operated on in France. It is this cause for which professor Francine Leca has been working for over a decade. Courtesy of host families who support the children’s convalescence, the efforts of committed medical teams, and the donations collected every year, 900 sick children have already been saved.

Mitsubishi’s contribution to MCC will be used to release the funds required for an operation on one child from each African country which the rally passes through. But apart from financial support and the visibility offered to the charity, it is first and foremost a heartfelt commitment for the drivers, as team manager Dominique Serieys explains: “We are very proud to wear their colours at each Dakar and all year round. Helping to save children’s lives is the finest victory we can win. We hope to raise awareness among the wider public and rally enthusiasts alike of the fantastic work being done by MCC.” What better way of doing so than winning on the track?