“The best is yet to come”

Nani Roma is to the Dakar what one of four wheels is to a car: indispensable. But last January, for the first time in 26 years, the Spaniard was not present at the start line of the 45th edition after fighting bladder cancer since the spring of 2022. The Catalan returns in 2024 for his 27th participation with a new project backed by the prestigious British M-Sport rally team, the South Africans of Neil Woolridge Motorsport and American manufacturer Ford. Roma is one of only three competitors in Dakar history to have won on two wheels (2004 with KTM) and four (2014 with MINI X-Raid). Although as a child he played football, he quickly turned his attention to motorcycling, and in 1991, he finished runner-up in the Spanish 125cc Enduro Junior Championship. Nani impressed everyone immediately in his first Dakar in 1996 with a stage victory. Since then, he had not missed a single edition until last year. His legacy is such that even his wife, Rosa Romero, has competed ten times in the rally. In preparation for the first assault of the new M-Sport/NWM Ford structure, Nani Roma has reunited with co-driver Álex Haro, with whom he competed in the Baja Aragón as the first real test and in the Rally of Morocco, where they finished third overall. Both know that the thousands of kilometres of testing and the hours and hours of meetings with the engineers are the basis of the future prototype, which the team will create from scratch. But they are going into this 2024 Dakar Rally eager to do well, even though they know that, on paper, this is a transition and learning edition for the promising future that awaits the Ranger T1+. Roma is hoping to give a boost to his third major project in the past six years.

N.R.: “It will be a special year for me because it will be the 20th anniversary of my win on a bike and the 10th anniversary of my win in a car. It makes me think how quickly time goes by, but also that the important thing is to stay here. You think, 'What a lucky life I've had, that I'm still racing after such a long time'. We always talk about how important health is, but you don't realise it until you have a situation like the one I had in the middle of last year. Your perspective changes so much because you have to put aside the races and your daily routine and realise that you are fighting for your life, that everything else doesn't matter”.
“I'm really looking forward to this Dakar, starting a new project and after seeing in Morocco that the important thing is not to stop until the end of the day; this way, the results can come. We know where we are this year and what we and the team want to do. It's important for Ford and M-Sport to have this learning time because I think not all manufacturers can do that. People forget sometimes how difficult it is to make competitive cars in cross country. The best is yet to come.”


A.H.: “After the forced break Nani had last year, it was a real pleasure when he called me to join the new project with Ford and M-Sport. I already have experience with Malcolm Wilson's structure, from when we won the World Rally Championship in Super 2000 with Xevi Pons in 2010. I know first-hand that they are super professionals and that we are in a winning project for the future. We have done a lot of testing, and we are heading in the right direction. There is still work to do, but the goal is to have a five-star car for the second Dakar. The 2024 Dakar will be emotional, and I'm sure I will experience the same emotions I felt at the Granada Rally a year ago when Nani returned to compete for the first time since what happened to him. To be able to go with him again and form a team together is a source of pride without a doubt”.