“Enjoying the experience as a family”

His brother Nicolas is a Dakar regular, having already entered the race eight times on bikes and now in an SSV. Last year his Dad Peter entered the Dakar Classic in a Mitsubishi Pajero and really enjoyed the experience. So it was only a matter of time before brother Andres joined the party. Ex-motorcycle rally-raid world champion David Casteu has always looked after Nicolas and so it was a logical step last year for him to sort out Peter’s Pajero. No prizes for guessing what car Andres will be using, or who prepared it. David even helped out when it came to finding a co-driver for Andres, with the man David uses for making road books, Eric Bersey being called up for navigation duties. They have already practiced driving together and Andres says he’ll be taking the event seriously… though he isn’t expecting to win first time out…

“Obviously I’ve always followed by brother’s exploits on the Dakar and he has always come back with plenty of stories and a big smile on his face. Then when my Dad came back after last year’s Dakar Classic equally enthusiastic I didn’t need a lot of persuading! We are a very ‘outdoor’ family and have always done big motorcycle trips together, especially in South America, so even if this is a big adventure for me, I think I should adapt OK to life on the Dakar. Plus David Casteu will be looking after all of us so we’ll be bivouacking together and will be able to enjoy the experience as a family. My brother is also giving us a lot of advice based on his long Dakar experience. I’ll be using the same model Pajero as my Dad. We bought three and made two good ones out of them. They are pretty similar, the only difference is mine is an automatic, so that’s one less thing to have to think about!”