“Everyone is talking about this project”

With 16 Dakar under his belt -on both two and four wheels- and a past stage winner in the truck class, Pascal De Baar is another to throw his hat into the ring as a potential 2024 winner. First competing in the Dakar on a bike in 2005, the Dutchman will be facing a last-minute challenge for 2024. At the end of December, the Tatra Buggyra ZM Racing team has had to make a major change to the crew as Martin Soltys got injured and will be replaced by De Baar, who was initially scheduled to assist the Boucou team in a MAN. His codriver will still be Giso Verschoor, but the mechanic will be Tomas Sikola who knows perfectly the new EVO3 truck.

PDB: “Last year, my truck burned down on the first day after just 25 km. So I had to go on the Dakar Experience. After that, the truck was perfect and we finished sixth, fifth, fourth... and even won a stage. I was very happy with the truck. I wasn’t fighting for the race, but I was still very happy with the Dakar. After that, I went to Mexico to train on my bike for a week. I did motocross every week. I then took part in a motorcycle rally in Romania in October. I also went to Dubai to train the Team Rainbow riders to race side by side in the dunes. I was supposed to join MAN to provide assistance to the Boucou team and the South Racing drivers. But in the end, Buggyra called me because Soltys broke his shoulder. They built a brand-new truck, the EVO3, and gave me the opportunity to drive it, with the goal of finishing on the podium. The first thing is to finish the Dakar with this new truck. That will give us an idea of whether we’re on the right track. Everyone’s talking about this project. Giso will remain my co-driver and the mechanic comes from Buggyra, it’s the guy who developed the truck. It’s important to have a mechanic who knows everything about this truck. It’ll be a whole new challenge for me. I saw the truck for the first time a few days before the start. It was already on the boat when they called me!”