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Roma finds a drive!

After announcing he wouldn't be competing in the Personal Dakar Argentina Chile , Joan " Nani " Roma has accepted a drive with Team Overdrive, which will provide the Spaniard with a car capable of putting in a strong run.

Following a premature exit from the 2010 Dakar, Roma also lost his spot in the X-Raid Team between La Rioja and Fiamala. The rest of Roma's year was spent in long negotiations in attempt to get a new and ambitious programme up and running, but the 2004 Dakar winner in the motorcycle category failed to tie up all the loose string and even announced his non-participation. In all the commotion, the Catalan received great news in a telephone call from the boss at Team Overdrive, Jean-Marc Fortin. As it turned out, Freddy Loix had a conflict of schedule and thus there was a vacancy in the Nissan Navara. The game of musical chairs worked in "Nani's" favour and he immediately headed to Buenos Aires to seal the deal. "As it turned out their best car was available. Everything came together very quickly and with an opportunity like this I couldn't pass up the ride with such a well organised team in which I know quite a few people. Several of the team members worked with me at Mitsubishi and X-Raid", explained Roma on his website www.naniroma.com. In addition to the human aspect, Roma and co-driver Gilles Picard can also fell confident with the performance level of their vehicle. While the South American was less successful in 2010, the previous year, the two lead cars in Team Overdrive finished 4th and 5th with Tollefsen and Holowczyc.

The Dakar on the seas

After taking possession of the vehicles of the European competitors last week, the Dakar teams proceeded with their loading. Yesterday evening, the ship is headed towards Buenos Aires with the truck of defending champion, Vladimir Chagin...

At 180m long, 55m tall and 35m wide, the Grand Brasile has a standard load capacity of 3,500 cars. As it leaves Europe this time towards South America, "Ro Ro", as it has become known as, is transporting a unique cargo. 550 Dakar Rally vehicles, including 195 service cars and trucks and 75 media and organisation vehicles. As for the race, of the 430 entered, 280 (122 motorcycles, 11 quads, 87 cars and 63 trucks) are on board. The majority of the loading was done on the Wednesday. For 13 hours, the Grand Brasile crew and Le Havre dock workers helped the 15 members of the rally organisation team, two of which are making the three-week voyage across the Atlantic to keep a close eye on the vehicles.

Chagin by the air

However, the Kamaz of Vladimir Chagin experienced a setback that forced the team into crisis management mode. During testing at Clermont-Ferrand; the number 500 truck was seriously damaged. The repairs required an emergency trip to the race shop in Naberezhnye Chelny in Tatarstan. Always the sportsman, Jan De Rooy immediately sent his transporter to Clermont-Ferrand to load up Chagin's truck and take it to Russia. Ever since, the mechanics have worked night and day to get the Kamaz in running order for a rally in which it is the pre-event favourite for the win. At this late date, the team will air-freight the truck and equipment to Buenos Aires.

-source: aso