Where there's a will, there's a way
Dakar 2025 |
Stage 9 |
RIYADH
> HARADH
January 14
th
2025
- 21:07
[GMT + 3]
Anything can happen in the Dakar, but driving an SSV without a steering wheel is definitely not something we would recommend! Ricardo Porém and Nuno Sousa got a first-hand taste of this rather uncomfortable experience, one that they will no doubt laugh about for years to come.
After five starts and with a single withdrawal to his name (2020), Ricardo Porém thought he had a solid grasp of the treacherous pitfalls of the Dakar. However, this time round, during stage 8, his journey almost went completely sideways —literally. Paired with his childhood friend and first-time co-driver, Nuno Sousa, Ricardo Porém found himself in an almost inescapable predicament… though the duo somehow managed to claw their way out. Things went pear-shaped with about 100 km left in stage 8. "We were exactly at kilometre 394 when the steering column broke. We were alone in the middle of the desert, surrounded by loose stones, with no idea what to do. To stay in the race under Dakar Experience conditions, we needed to at least get out of the special and onto the road section, but we didn't even know how far away that was or how to get there!"
The initial despair did not last long, thanks to Nuno Sousa's quick thinking and refusal to give up. Despite being a Dakar rookie and far from a mechanic, Nuno brought a "MacGyver mindset" to the situation, paired with unshakable optimism. "We'd already spent an entire night out in the freezing cold back in stage 6, so the desert was leading 1–0. There was no way we were letting it win again, so I told Ricardo we were going to figure it out and make it 1–1." His pep talk hit home, but now it was time to take action: "There was part of the steering column left, but I needed to find an extension to get us moving again", explained the digital marketing entrepreneur. "So I grabbed a spare suspension arm we had and tried to fix it in place. It was tough, but I managed it. Then, on the other side, I used a socket wrench handle to give Ricardo something to steer with."
Their improvised setup was nowhere near enough to finish the special, but it got the job done… just about. "It took us over two hours to cover thirty-five kilometres and get to a point where we could wait for our support crew", explained the two-time Portuguese champion in T3. "It was crazy. The system barely worked. At times, we had to get out of the car to manually turn the wheels just to steer. But in the end, we pulled it off because Nuno had the brains to figure it out." The makeshift mechanic's professional instincts also kicked in. In the middle of this bizarre ordeal, Nuno pulled out his phone to capture the moment. "We don't get it, the video went viral." Once uploaded to their Instagram account, the clip made the rounds across the globe, racking up close to a million views in just 24 hours! Success breeds success, and the two brothers in arms were presented with the Dakar Spirit Award on the podium of the bivouac in Haradh. A happy ending, or as they say back home in Portugal, um final feliz.
