Nani Roma: “We’ll be in the battle for victory”
‘’He would tell me: ‘you’ll see we’re going to win it’ ”. Nani Roma keeps on repeating this sentence of Henri Magne who died during the last Morocco rally, with a huge conviction. There is for him since that terrible month of June 2006 a special motivation for victory to pay a tribute to his co-driver with whom he spent the last two years, the first two of the Catalan driver in the Mitsubishi team. The first Spanish competitor to have both won the event on a bike and finished on the podium of the car race, is indeed determined, this year more than ever, to give the best of himself. His 3rd place last year, after a sixth position for his first appearance in a car in 2005 are enough anyhow to put Roma on the list of the Dakar favourites. A status that he assumes without hesitation: “I’m sure that we will be in the battle for victory. I know that the race remains the race but the team is good and I have all to do well”. His new co-driver, Lucas Cruz, 31 years of age, rapidly was at the level of his driver: “After two test sessions in Dubaï I managed to adapt. It’s easy to settle in to a team that works out well”. Nani Roma will therefore be on the start line of his 12th Dakar, the third in a car, with a solid enough experience and real assets to once again be on the final podium. The new Mitsubishi Pajero Evo will also allow him to perfectly fit in his 1,90m body. A detail that can have its importance when one spends close to 9000 kilometres in a cockpit.