LAVIEILLE Christian FRA 16/12/1965 1.8 cm 76 kg

FORTHOMME Jean-Paul BEL

Vehicle

MODEL	MAKE
DESSOUDE	PROTO

RANKING

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15
Scratch
Stage
Overall

«40 more horsepower won’t make a difference»

For his seventh Dakar, Christian Lavieille could finish among the leaders. He has nothing to prove as a professional racer with several runner-up finishes in the 24 Hours of Le Mans motorcycle race and the 2006 T2 world championship. As one of the outsiders capable of positioning himself just behind the big teams, Lavieille is someone all the experts are expecting a lot from. Yet, he knows the Dakar all too well. He isn’t about to get ahead of himself in making a prediction. “First, we have to try to keep up with the leaders in the opening days, because we doubt it will be very difficult. Second, we cannot compete with the diesels entered by the ‘factories’, but we will be right behind. That is to say that if we have a perfect rally, we can hope to finish somewhere between 5th and 10th place. And to do this, 40 more horsepower won’t make a difference. You have to run a mistake free Dakar. If you do it will pay off. We can rely on our experience, even though it will not keep us out of harm’s way”. This talented duo is, in fact, knows that misfortunes can sweep away all illusions. Last year, it was between San Rafael and Mendozza, during stage six, that their South American adventure came to an end with a fire that was as spectacular as it was unforeseeable. “We didn’t see it coming; it was maybe caused by a small leak of fuel that made contact with the exhaust pipe. I got out of the car, I had just enough time to grab my papers and Jean-Paul left the car empty handed. The car caught fire immediately. We barely had time to be scared, but it is still terribly frustrating for us. The work got off to a good start, now we have to finish the job.”

Dakar start photos on line: www.maindruphoto.com

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