Rallye Dakar Nachrichten

Just a few days before the start of the Dakar Rally 2008, Team Repsol Mitsubishi Ralliart presented itself at the traditional press meeting. With great confidence and pride, every member of the team lend a word to the press and showed the fully prepared Mitsubishi Pajero/Montero MPR13s. And the attention of the press was overwhelming!

One big family

Although the weather in Lisboa is cloudy and windy, with the occasional raindrop, nobody seems to care because…everybody wants to start the Dakar Rally 2008.

The press meeting was planned on Thursday morning at 10.15. Together, the cars and team members really showed that Team Repsol Mitsubishi Ralliart is really one big family. With their famous red jackets they created a red sea of fleece. The technicians, never more than a few feet away from the cars, looked very relaxed. They did what they had to do to show the world that here is a winning team again. And it doesn’t matter which team member you ask ‘the question’, the answer is always: Mitsubishi will be the Winner of the Dakar Rally 2008! Of course this is just confidence talking, not arrogance, because they all know that the competition will absolutely try to beat them. In about seventeen days we will know…

A proud Thierry Viardot

With a smile on his face, because he knows everything possible in preparation has been done, he introduces himself: “Hi, I’m Thierry Viardot. I am the technical director of the Mitsubishi Repsol Team. We have 4 racecars, 6 service cars and 7 service trucks in the Dakar Rally 2008. In total, there are over sixty people working for this team and, look around, we are all so happy to be here! We are a big team because we really want to win again. The cars are unchanged compared to last year, except for the gearbox. We fixed it to reduce the performance of the engine because they want to reduce the difference between the factory teams and the amateurs.”

Ready to go…

This Thursday is a busy day but also a good day. Drivers, co-drivers and technicians are happy to meet everybody again, wishing each other a Happy New Year. Nana Roma knows that the cars are ready. He is proud of the hard and professional work of his team. “I hope it stops raining because the stages in Portugal will be hard for the cars when it’s wet and muddy, but today, we just want to enjoy ourselves and meet a lot of press. I can’t wait for Saturday to start the Dakar Rally 2008!” His friend and colleague Luc Alphand states: “I’m relaxed. This is my 11th Dakar rally and I know it’s a lot of work today and it’s very crowded, but it’s so nice to say hello to everybody and wish them all a Happy New Year! I’m proud of my team, they did an excellent job again and I’m sure we are going to win again.”