“It is just like playing poker”

Rodrigo Varela is none of than the son of Reinaldo Varela, who’s a bit of an off-road legend both at home and abroad. Dad is one of the very few competitors to have raced the Dakar on three different continents and won the race in South America aboard a Can Am Maverick. According to other Brazilian competitors, Rodrigo is cut from the same cloth, and according to his co-driver at least, he is the fastest driver in Brazil right now. Rodrigo has so far only raced once outside of Brazil, on this year’s Morocco Desert Challenge, where he won the prologue before breaking the car on stage 1 -something that apparently wasn’t his fault. His co-driver is a bit of a legend too and surely one of the more colourful characters on this year’s event. A professional poker player, Enio was co-driver for his wife Pamela when she won her class on the 2023 Rally dos Sertoes. Then on the 2023 Dakar she finished 32nd in the T3 class, beating ‘hubby’ by two places...

Enio Bozzano Junior: “We made a few navigation mistakes on the 2023 Dakar and after that experience navigating for my wife I got really interested in the subject. I realised that it is just like playing poker: you have to stay concentrated for long periods of time and not make any mistakes. It might sound a bit crazy but I think we could win this year. Rodrigo is a really good driver and I think together we could create a big surprise.”