“It will be a two or three years process”
En resumen
- From mechanic to driver, Andrea Cadei has grown with his first two participations in the Dakar Classic alongside Nunzia Del Gaudio. After missing the 2025 edition, the Italian returns as the leader of a trio composed of himself, Stefano Sbrana and Marco Valentini, who will discover the event by his side.
- A preparator, Cadei usually works on race cars that take on rallyes on the asphalt. But this year, he added the extra challenge of preparing a truck for his new adventure in the Saudi desert.
- A comprehensive work saw him refurbish an Iveco 80 Turbo from 1985. He revamped the wheelbase, the engine, the cabine… And now he’s setting for his third Dakar Classic.
- Since he was a kid, Marco Valentini dreamed of taking on the Dakar just like his distant cousin Luigi Algeri did many times from the 1980s until 2006.
- Inspired by his family idol, Valentini raced motocross himself, but the Dakar felt unattainable to him. His passion for motors remained intact and he started developing bikes and caring for vintage cars.
- When Andrea Cadei called him to gear for the Dakar Classic 2026 aboard an Iveco 80 Turbo from 1985, it tied together his childhood dreams and the projects he had developed as an adult. When he turns 50 at the end of the year, Valentini will be able to say he’s been at the Dakar.
- Following the tracks of his father, who used to repair lorries, Stefano Sbrana has been involved with trucks his whole life. And this experience proved essential to pave his way to first Dakar Classic participation.
- Now the owner of an Iveco workshop, Sbrana partnered with Cadei to rebuild an Iveco 80 Turbo from 1985 and get it ready for the challenges of Saudi Arabia.
- Ahead of his 50th birthday, next summer, participating in the Dakar Classic is a gift to the young kid that used to marvel at the images of trucks storming the desert.
Ambición
A.C.: “Not being in the Dakar 2025 showed me how much I missed it, so I decided to get a new truck. It all started in December 2024. The truck I got is basically a brother of the truck I drove in the Dakar Classic with Nunzia [Del Gaudio]. Since I saw the problems it could have and I build racing cars for a living, I applied these theories, and here we are.
I started with a truck with a long wheelbase, not a short wheelbase like the other one. So, in truck dynamics theory, a long wheelbase is more stable. Then I tried to lighten it as much as possible, in the sense that I removed everything that could be dismantled from the truck. I tried to make a lorry that could transport something, also with a view to helping someone else. But I tried to make a racing lorry, within the limits of my possibilities, including financial ones. Then, there was definitely work to be done on the engine, and also on the gearbox. And there was a lot of work on the cabin too, because it was originally designed with two seats.
Having done two Dakars, I'll be the leader in our trio. We are friends but we have never shared anything like that and it's also their first time working on tools for regularity. So this year, we mostly want to help others at Tecnosport, and it will be a two or three year process to get to the point where we can aim for a result.”
M.V.: “To me, the Dakar is the ultimate sporting experience, a childhood dream born out of my lifelong passion for motorsports. Among other things, Luigi Algeri was a distant cousin of my parents who did it several times on his bike. He was an idol to me, leaving the countryside on a motorbike to go in the desert.
Over the years, I also raced motocross and the dream kind of faded away, I realised it might be too difficult to ever do the Dakar. But Andrea offered a formula that seemed more within my capacities, doing the Classic and helping him with the truck. I've been developing bikes, so this whole project has brought back a dream that was almost lost.
I also look after lots of historic cars, so the Classic speaks to me. And our truck adds that off-road element. Driving in the desert will bring adrenaline. It's a challenge to spend two weeks in an environment that is, sort of speak, hostile. And then there's the challenge of solving problems every day that you're not used to. I thrive on challenges, and that's exactly what this is: confronting something you're not used to doing, seeing if you're capable of doing it.”
S.S.: “The Dakar is a dream I had as a child, because I've always loved lorries. I used to watch them on television and say to myself: who knows, maybe one day... I even got my driving licence during my military service, because I was one of the last people to do military service in Italy and I absolutely wanted a driving licence so I could drive a lorry. I also tried my hand on motorbikes but I had a lot of accidents and eventually I was just repairing the truck.
My first concern was about the physical training. I'm alright with working on the truck, with spending long hours in the desert and facing I don't know how many kilometres. But 15 days in the desert, damn!
Now I feel excited. It's been a rush to get the truck ready. Andrea looks at it from a racing perspective, while I come from a world where it's about getting the truck to run and have little problems. Everything we've done has been meticulous work. We aim to make it to the finish, to meet lots of people and to enjoy ourselves. I've always travelled on motocross and caravans. This is a unique experience.”
