BERNARD Eric FRA 25/07/1967 174 cm 74 kg

CORNUAILLE Jean-Noël FRA 28/11/1961 174 cm 78 kg

Vehicle

MODEL	MAKE
TRIO	BMW

RANKING

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15
Scratch	81	66	45	35	44	54	29	27	40	9	-	-	-	-
Stage	81	66	45	35	44	52	28	27	39	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Overall	81	74	50	43	40	35	33	39	32	-	-	-	-	-	-	-

Eric Bernard: «Our prototype is worthy of 25th place»

His role as a manager took him to the summits of the Dakar. Today he dreams of starting the climb all over again. Eric Bernard led with success the Gauloises – KTM team for the last two years. “Cyril Despres’ victory remains a great memory, he says. But the best one is my first finish in Dakar in 1997. To live the Dakar in a plane is terribly frustrating. I do management all year round and the Dakar is a bit of a holiday. I’m therefore back on the track”.

After spending ten months building his racing car – a prototype with a BMW turbo diesel engine – he is slowly getting closer to his objective. “The Dakar is my reference in terms of difficulty. It’s the only rally that I want to do”.

A biker will be sitting in the co-drivers seat. “I wanted to go with Jean-Noël Cornuaille because he’s an adventurer, explains Eric Bernard. He organizes the Cassis to Dakar race for Citroen 2 CV cars for example. But most of all he’s a biker who has already done five Dakars”. Jean-Noël Cornuaille shares his point of view. “A biker has a certain philosophy to get things sorted. If I had registered as a driver, I would also have chosen a biker as the co-driver on my right”. The car went through a real test in 2008 on the Central European round of the Dakar Series. A positive outcome for Eric Bernard. «We had some cooling problems on the first stage. We got it sorted and were in 19th place. During the final stage we had some difficulties with the accelerator and finished 41st overall, but we were very pleased. We’re leaving to finish the Dakar, knowing the car clearly has the potential to finish around 25th place overall. »

Dakar start photos on line: www.maindruphoto.com

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