“Our goal is to be among the best Italian crews!”

Gian Paolo Cavagna is someone who knows a lot about historic cars as an aficionado and a collector -he now owns about ten of them- but he doesn’t keep them just to admire them, on the contrary he is someone who has already done several speed races, including the Monte Carlo Rally and 1000 Miglia, as well as all the related races that they are used to qualify for the most famous events. The 2022 Dakar Classic was his first taste of Dakar and one year later he’s back for more. The same Nissan Patrol Y61 GR Diesel will be used, with appropriate revisions and a little more horsepower this time, as well as a boot-load of spare parts to cover every eventuality. Once again joining him in the car is Gianni Pelizzola, who has dreamed of the Dakar since he was a child and tackles the event with the spirit of the old pioneers.

G.P.C. – “I'm a big fan of historic cars and I've already done several races and rallies, but always at speed. The Dakar Classic is different because navigation and hourly averages are very important. This will be the second time we do this event, so everything is simpler and at least we know what we are getting into.
“Our Nissan Patrol, the same as last year, has been improved with a few more horsepower, the set-up has been overhauled, but above all compared to last year we have worked on the spare parts, turbo, clutch, shock absorbers and more so to increase the reliability and speed of replacements of these if we need to do so.
This year we have trained a lot by participating in various average races with improved electronic measuring instruments and therefore we are aiming for an excellent result. Our goal is to be among the best Italian crews!”