ALDO Racing Ready for the start of the Dakar 2019 Peru

 ALDO Racing driver David Bensadoun and his teammate Patrick Beaulé are in Lima, Peru where they met with team members already in the Capital City putting the final touches on their new CR6 prototype for the start of the 41st edition of the 2019 Dakar Peru. For the Canadian duo, this will be their fifth start in this gruelling competition. To get the maximum from their CR6, ALDO Racing has retained the services of Julian Hardy of Century Racing who is one of the engineers / designers of the CR6 prototype. His detailed knowledge of the car will be a valuable asset to the team, which will be racing this vehicle for the first time.

A ceremonial start will be given from Myraflores, a suburb of Lima, on Sunday January 6. The start and go will not count in the official results of the rally. The 2019 Dakar rally will officially run January 7-17 for roughly 5,540 kilometres of roads and off-road that includes 2,660-km of timed Special Stages (SS) run on trails that are 70% sand. This competition will be extremely intense for drivers and exceptionally difficult for navigators.

The rally return-trip to Lima will be held in the southern region of Peru. Each of the 10 timed stages include check points that issue penalty points to cars that do not register electronically because they were too far from the Way Points or were early or late in their time allotment. For the Canadian pair, this race against time will be relentless.

“We have created a plan for a successful Dakar,” explained David Bensadoun. “For the first two days, I want to get used to the car again and get a feel for the suspension because I haven’t driven it since April. I plan to push the CR6 to about 80% while Patrick focuses on navigation.”

“From day 3 to rest day, I will push the car between 85 and 90% of its capacity in the terrain that suits the CR6 best. In the dunes, I will drive at 80% and focus on amazing navigation and not getting stuck.

“I really believe that this race will be very tough. Everyone thinks that because it is 10 days rather than 14, and because of the relatively low mileage of the Special Stages, that it will be easier, but the dunes in Peru are serious and the organizers know they need to prove it’s still a real Dakar. Based on my research online, I believe that the marathon stages of day 4 and 5 will be real tough runs. We will gain hours and hours on the competition just by NOT getting lost or stuck. Add on the real risk of crashes and rolls in the dunes for the top teams and there could be a lot of attrition ahead of us.

“After rest day, we’ll get tactical. We’ll see exactly who is ahead of us and when and where to push. We have an amazing car and it will help us to stay smooth and safe as we rip through the terrain. On the non-dune sections, we will do very well! In the dunes we need to focus on navigation, not crashing and not getting stuck,” concluded the Canadian driver.

Co-driver Patrick Beaulé agrees with his teammate on the difficult parts of the rally, but he is quite confident regarding the success of the team in Peru.

“We can feel the excitement of the team members here in Lima, because they all know how important a  successful Dakar is to the ALDO Racing organization. They are ready for the ceremonial start from Myraflores this coming Sunday,” said codriver Patrick Beaulé. “I feel very confident heading into the rally. I heard the navigation notes will be the most difficult I have ever encountered. Fortunately, what we learned in last September’s Desafio Ica Rally will be very helpful because the Dakar rally jargon notes will be the same.

“The excellent advance work done by our Project Manager, Stephan Desrochers, has freed me from this task, and I can concentrate solely on getting ready for the rally. I am really looking forward to finally running our CR6 in an environment for which it was designed.

“I believe the Dakar will include high levels of technical difficulties as well navigational trick notes. This will be one of the shortest Dakar ever time-wise and lengthwise, but the organizers’ goal remains the same as they expect to have less than 50% of the entrants running at the finish line. We don’t want to be part of that group.

“We have always dreamed of a Dakar run mostly in the sand and in the dunes. I think we will get our wish,” concluded the Canadian do-driver.

Following each day of the Dakar Rally, media and fans can follow ALDO Racing’s daily activities and results on its Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/aldoracingteam/. A mid-race press release report will be issued on Saturday, January 12.

Live podium departure will be broadcast on the Dakar Facebook page at www.facebook.com/dakar. To follow the race live in your language tune in at twitter.com/dakarlive; Daily results will be published on the official website at www.dakar.com (EN / ES / FR).

The participation of ALDO Racing in the Dakar 2019 is the result of a partnership with the ALDO Group, E.F. Walters, Stingray, SAJO, Vitesse Transport Corporation, the OEC Group and Fesh-Fesh Investments.

Adam Sinclair