THOMASSE Pascal FRA 26/11/1952 183 cm 83 kg

LARROQUE Pascal FRA 17/05/1965 178 cm 69 kg

Vehicle

MODEL	MAKE
	BUGGY

RANKING

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15
Scratch	14	141	26	27	92	11	17	21	11	28	-	20	19	15
Stage	14	141	26	27	92	11	17	21	52	26	-	19	19	15	-	-
Overall	14	124	98	78	83	55	43	51	41	33	-	28	28	28	-	-

Pascal Thomasse: “I missed a bridge at 160 km/h”

Both of them have 20 Dakar rallies behind them. In other words they won’t only go to South America to admire the landscape. “We’re aiming at the Top 15”, says co-driver Pascal Larroque. “The Top 10”, corrects Pascal Thomasse, the driver. “We have a good base, a good buggy but then there’s always a part of luck in the Dakar. To manage a performance, others have to fail to do performances’’. Two years ago, the two companions had to quit with only three stages to go, while they were 8th overall. The previous year, the adventure had also sadly finished: “I was in fifth gear, at around 160 km/h, remembers Pascal Thomasse. I missed a bridge and we fell in an oued. Only the steering wheel and other things weren’t destroyed. Pascal and I both suffered broken vertebras”. The accident, at the time, had made the opening news at 8 o’clock on France 2. This time the crew would like to be under the spotlights but for other reasons. Pascal Thomasse hasn’t competed in the Dakar between 1991 and 2005: “You have to know when to stop to really enjoy things”. Of the three Dakar rallies started since his return, he had to quit twice. This year he will therefore have a mission. The 2009 edition will actually have a special taste for Pascal Thommase. He will indeed find on the tracks his everyday life companion, Corine Dubois, registered on a quad. A perspective that doesn’t really rejoice him: “It’s fun and not fun. I will be worried every evening waiting to see her make it to the bivouac”.

Dakar start photos on line: www.maindruphoto.com

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