Kevin Benavides from Salta and Manuel Andújar from Lobos, winners of the 2021 edition of the Dakar in motorcycles and ATVs, respectively, lead the legion of 17 Argentine riders in the 44th. edition of the Dakar Rally that will begin this Saturday in Saudi Arabia.
At the landing of the Dakar on Arab soil, two years ago, there were 20 “Albicelestes” protagonists, a number that dropped to 15 in the last edition, in which Benavides made history by becoming the first South American racer to become established on two wheels.
The Dakar 2022 will be held from January 1 to 14, with departure and arrival in Jeddah after 12 stages.
Benavides will present a big change because he dissociated himself from Honda and ended up in the official KTM team, in which one of his companions will be the Australian Toby Price, winner in 2016 and 2019 of the mythical test together with the Austrian brand.
His brother Luciano will continue to be linked to Husqvarna, contesting his fifth Dakar, the second in a row with the aforementioned squad
They are joined by the Buenos Aires de Acevedo, Joaquín Debeljuh (KTM), the Riojan Diego Llanos (Husqvarna), and the Mendoza Diego Noras (KTM) and Matías Notti (KTM), who are going for the feat of reaching the finish line.
The list in motorcycles decreased days before the start due to the decision of Franco Caimi, of the Hero team, not to participate because he was not fully recovered from an injury he suffered while training in Dubai.
The pilot from the Mendoza town of Luján de Cuyo contested the Dakar five times and was eighth twice, in 2017 and 2020.
After having contested the Dakar for the first time in 2019, Notti, also from Mendoza, will be part again, this time in the unassisted motorcycle category, and will be the debuts of Debeljuh from Buenos Aires, Llanos from Rioja and Noras from Mendoza.
The Chaco Juan Manuel Silva participated eleven times in the Dakar, the last two as a navigator, and this year he will get on a division truck for the first time.
The “Pato” Silva, today sports director of the Honda Super TC2000 team, will have as navigators of his MAN truck from Wevers Sports, the Spanish Pau Navarro and the Argentine Carlos Mel Banfi.
The local Andújar will participate in the Dakar for the fifth time, defending the title of 2021, a historic year because he was consecrated in the Cross Country World Championship, and will use a quad from the Yamaha 7240 team.
He will be accompanied by two historical figures, one is Pablo Copetti from Córdoba, in his ninth experience, with two podiums and renewed expectations because he will have the powerful support of a United States team that bet on the pilot who several times represented San Martín de los Andes.
The other is Sáenz Peña’s from Buenos Aires, Carlos Verza, who will pilot a Verza Rally Team Yamaha, and the rookie will be Francisco Moreno from Mendoza, with a Drag’on Rally Team Yamaha.
In terms of cars, the Mendoza Orlando Terranova is synonymous with Dakar among Argentines, and is on his 16th uninterrupted participation in the Dakar since 2009 (twice he was fifth), and before that he had the pleasure of participating in Africa between 2005 and 2007 on a motorcycle.
An extensive campaign within the powerful X-Raid team has ended for “Orly” and he will drive a Prodrive Hunter, an experience he already had this year in Baja Aragón, and his teammates will be none other than Sebastien Loeb and Nani Roma.
A Toyota Hilux will be the model used by Lucio Alvarez from Mendoza to be in the Dakar for the eighth time, while Juan Cruz Yacopini will participate with a truck of the same brand, navigated by his father Alejandro, and Sebastián Halpern from Buenos Aires will use a Buggy from the MINI X-Raid team.
The side by side category, increasingly firm, will have the Spanish-Argentine Fernando Alvarez Castellano, with a lot of experience and outstanding previous preparation; Pablo Macua from Santa Fe, and David Zille, two of the many newcomers.
In the case of Zille, who was born in La Pampa and lives in Neuquén, he will be navigated by Sebastián Cesana and will join the South Racing team.
Zille became the first of the Argentines to secure his place in the Dakar 2022 after winning the Rally de Andalucía as a rookie.
The pampeano Zille won the Spanish test with Bruno Jacomy, a navigator whom he met by chance and then a relationship arose to make together both the experience in the South American Rally Race 2021 and the World Championship.
Jeremías González Ferioli from Cordoba prepared with navigator Gonzalo Rinaldi to make his official debut in the side by side category, but the recent wave of Covid-19 infections caused him to test positive four days after the start and he will not race.
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