Attacks took place in the same region where US aircraft carriers recently fought bandits
South American Rally Raid champion (the new name for the Cross-Country Rally discipline, which includes the Dakar and the Sertões) Rodrigo Varela was celebrating Christmas with his family when the news arrived: the cargo ship carrying his car for the 2024 Dakar, a Can-Am UTV, as well as all the spare parts and equipment, had escaped from Houthi pirates who were boarding vessels in the Red Sea. Prevented from taking that route, the ship changed course to bypass the entire African continent, which altered its arrival by more than 20 days - making it impossible for the Brazilian driver to compete in the race.
Immediately, the Varela family - a traditional Brazilian motorsport clan - started making contacts so that Rodrigo's Dakar debut wouldn't end there. Already scheduled to travel to Europe on December 26, from where he would head to Saudi Arabia, where the Dakar will take place from January 5 to 19, Rodrigo began the search for a replacement car, with the help of his two brothers and his father, Reinaldo Varela, a Dakar champion and three-time world champion.
"We found a Can-Am in Portugal, owned by a driver who came to Brazil to compete in the Sertões with us. But we had to make modifications and adaptations in a hurry. Fortunately, it worked and passed the Dakar inspection. That was the main thing: we're going to race!" said Rodrigo, who will be partnered by navigator Ênio Bozzano. "But we still don't have all the parts we'll need during the Dakar, which is a long race and requires a lot of maintenance. That's why we're counting on the help of the other teams. The Dakar is a mix of racing and adventure. And that makes solidarity one of its most notable features. People help each other when they can."
The incident was not isolated. A week earlier, the US government announced an international coalition for the difficult task of protecting cargo ships that had been attacked by pirates in the Red Sea. On December 31, helicopters from the aircraft carrier USS Einsenhower and the destroyer USS Gravely fought three Houthi vessels, killing ten crew members.
The Houthis are one of the main forces in the civil war that began in 2012 in the region's poorest country, Yemen, which is opposed by forces backed by Saudi Arabia (a US ally) and Iran. As an Arab nation, another banner motivating Houthi action in the region is opposition to Israel, due to the war against Hamas. The Red Sea is the route to the Suez Canal in Egypt, through which 15% of world trade passes.
Team made up of Brazilians - The Varela project will not only promote the Dakar debut of Rodrigo, eldest son of three-time world champion Reinaldo. Also notable is the fact that the team will be made up of Brazilian technicians. Three specialized mechanics will be led by Reinaldo, with the help of his youngest son, Bruno - who recently won the Brazilian Baja Rally Championship three times. The two of them will be in the support vehicles on the track. The initiative is supported by Divino Fogão, Can-Am, Motul and Quadrijet.
The other driver in the family, Gabriel, stayed in Brazil, where he coordinated the efforts to locate and prepare the car, as well as helping with logistics while the family traveled to the Middle East.
Team Brazil, the name given to the team in this Dakar, set up last Tuesday in the first of the 13 campsites planned for the race, in Al-Ula, the site of an oasis occupied more than five thousand years ago, in the heart of the Saudi desert. On arrival, Rodrigo carried out the first task of his new reality in the world's toughest off-road race: getting a power generator, since the equipment was on the ship that fled the pirates. "It's going to be like this until the end," said Rodrigo. "With the correct planning, which we had until this incident, it's already very difficult to compete in this race. But that's what the Dakar is all about: you have to outdo yourself every day. That's what we're here for," he concluded.
In addition to the debut of the South American champion, in 2024 Brazil will have its strongest representation in the Dakar since the country's debut in the race in 1988, with Klever Kolberg and André Azevedo. With a record 17 members, the national delegation has strong candidates for victory in the categories in which it competes, such as Cars (with Lucas Moraes, for example), T3 prototype UTVs (Gustavo Gugelmin, navigator) and factory UTVs prepared for competition (T4, with Varela/Bozzano and driver Cristiano Batista), as well as Quadricycles (with Marcelo Medeiros).
Automatic translation of the original Brazilian Portuguese version
Source BestPR
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