“I sold my Range to some friends knowing that Lionel Guy had another one available to prepare for me. I’m heading off for my third Dakar Classic, this time with Laurent, whom I met during my previous participations. The advantage we’ll have this year is that Lionel, my preparer, who had been racing with us until now, will be handling our support in the evenings. We now have a real group of friends who want to get together every year. It was really Lionel who started all this, because it was by following his first time that I got inspired. We’ve now been together for three years, and it’s this human adventure that matters to me. We all share the same passion for the Range for the same reason: it’s a car that made us dream when we were young, and now we finally have the means to buy one.”

“Since Lionel, with whom I raced last year, is coming back as support this year, I was available, and Hervé reached out to me at the end of the previous Dakar. He saw what our family-like yet professional team spirit brought, both in the car and at the bivouac. That’s really what gave him the confidence to create a fully fledged structure. This will be my third time on the clock, without a pacenote caller, in the Authentic Codriver Challenge. Because for me, that’s what fits the Classic category. It’s more complicated, it really gives us work to do in the car, but that’s what I’m used to. We went to test the new car on a rally in Zaragoza at the beginning of September with Hervé. We drove nearly 1,500 km round-trip from Montauban, plus the race itself, which allowed us to get to know each other better, and we realized that we operate pretty much the same way. This will be my third participation with a third different driver. I didn’t think I’d come back this many times, and it’s really the people I met there in 2022 that made it possible for me to have this opportunity today.”