GIRARD Christophe FRA 16/07/1963 176 cm 72 kg

SIMONIN Eric FRA 28/10/1960 172 cm 75 kg

Vehicle

MODEL	MAKE
4X4VENTURE	TOYOTA

RANKING

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15
Scratch	142	113	-	132	84	94	75	78	-	-	-	62	72	78
Stage	142	113	-	132	84	88	67	78	96	80	-	61	72	78	-	-
Overall	142	118	-	122	94	94	86	98	75	64	-	66	63	62	-	-

Christophe Girard: “Last. That’s my best performance”

Christophe Girard’s enthusiasm should serve as an example. Last year, he arrived “last” on the Dakar. But he didn’t have a single negative superlative in describing his race. “It was a fantastic moment, exceptional. It was my greatest result”. Along with colleague Eric Simonin, the team plays the same role of “St. Bernard” for the Toyota team. Here, we say “domestic”, which consists of replacing tyres, cooling fluid rather than the never ending bottle of rum, but the function is the same. “We are here to repair the cars during the race, like a truck. We always start last and we catch up to cars that have a problem and we make the repairs as fast as possible”, Eric Simonin explains. Real gardian angels who haven’t a minute for themselves: “a stage without any of the team’s vehicles needing something does not exist”, explains Christophe Girard. The two “registered mechanics” aren’t frustrated at all: “It’s a sort of race in the race”, points out the co-driver. “And you can’t imagine how satisfying it is to see the cars of others reaching the finish”. Not too concerned about their own ranking, they still live this Dakar experience as a real competition: “to take the other to the finish, we have to make it to the finish, it’s essential”, insists the driver from Ardeche. And what the two companions get from it is far beyond the frame of an ordinary race: “By helping the others, we learn a lot in terms of commitment and humanity”.

Dakar start photos on line: www.maindruphoto.com

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