There are only a few hours left to start the journey to theSaudi Arabiawhere a new edition of the rally will take place between December 31 and January 15 DakarBut Daniel Oliveras does not get carried away by emotion. It must be something to be already 35 years old and have extensive experience in the wildest race in the world of raids. It will be his ninth Dakar, the fourth in cars, as a co-pilot, plus the five he raced on a motorcycle. After the previous experiences with Gerard Farrés (2019), Beautiful Rome (2020, 2021 could not be because shortly before the test he contracted Covid) and Orlando Terranova (2022), now he will live a new one with the Argentine Juan Cruz Yacopini.
Start a new project with a broad vision. That is why he hastens to say that the objective is to “finish the rally” rather than a result in the classification. “It’s clear that being in the top 10 would be great, but we don’t put pressure or stress on ourselves. This is a project for the future, the most important thing is to learn and get to know each other between Juan Cruz Yacopini and me”, points out the pilot from Vilablareix. He is happy because he has found a way that guarantees him not only the Dakar 2023, but also to contest the whole World Raid Championship of next year, with tests a Abu Dhabi, Mexicol’Argentina i morocco. If things work, and in the last rally in Morocco, where the pair debuted together, they did so despite a rollover forcing them to abandon, a team may have been born in time.
They will compete with a Toyota Hilux T1+ prepare for Overdrivethe same machine that will drive one of the favorites of each edition, Nasser Al-Attiyah. “We will be like the Toyota official’s B team,” says the athlete from Girona, who is in charge of interpreting maps and road maps and translating them to his driver. In this sense, Dani Oliveras foresees a more difficult Dakar than the one in 2022. According to him, “the organizers already have more experience in Saudi Arabia and they will surely make it more complicated. In addition, this year some stages were quite decaffeinated, at 12 noon we were already there, and I’m sure that everything will be longer now».
Juan Cruz Yacopini comes from a family with a long history in motorsport and has participated in the Saudi Dakar in the last two years, with his father Alejandro co-pilot But for the 2023 edition he was looking for a new navigator, and he found Oliveras, who had been left out of Penetrate. Everything went very quickly and last October they did the first test in Morocco. They had another one planned, the rally ofAndalusiawhich they ended up scrapping because there was no time to repair the Toyota after the rollover.
Oliveras placed ninth in bikes and was fourth in cars last year with Terranova. These are his best results in the Dakar, which has been changing the scene since he contested it for the first time. He was also second in the side by side category in 2019 with Gerard Farrés. The Girona pilot, like many other Catalan participants, traveled today on a flight from Barcelona a Yanbu300 kilometers from Jeddah, where the first bivouac will be. While at home friends and family will prepare the grapes, he will start the race of his life for the ninth time.
Txema Villalobos continues alongside Isidre Esteve
The Calongí Txema Villalobos will once again be the co-pilot ofIsidre Esteve. This time they will compete with a Toyota Hilux T1+the same as that of Yacopini i olive trees. It is the best machine they have had available in one Repsol Team that has ambitious goals.
