Administrative and technical checks in Lima – Base Aerea Las Palmas
To celebrate its 40th anniversary, the 2018 Dakar returns to the tracks of Peru that it had abandoned for five long years. Happy to find the Peruvian dunes, competitors are also happy to find the legendary hospitality of this wonderful country with contrasting landscapes.
The Las Palmas Air Base, located in the southern sector of Lima, hosts the verifications. It is 1:15 pm when Eugenio Amos, Sébastien Delaunay and the 2WD team enter the administrative checks, a well-organized and relatively quick formality to conclude, before joining the hangars where the technical verifications take place.
The hair cut short, Eugenio Amos and Sébastien Delaunay, both have the sparkling and feverish look of impatient to leave on the tracks.
“I do not see the time to start,” says Eugenio Amos, “but I’m incredibly calm and serene. In fact, all I had to do to prepare myself was done… This year, we race Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge and then traveled long distances on the SWR to finish with Morocco. So we know very well the 2WD Buggy and its potential. I also went skiing and sleeping over 2000 meters altitude for 9 days and I trained in the gym, which I had never done! 95% is under control… So I’m ready and if I want to finish this Dakar… in good position, I also want to finish the first of the red and black cars — but I think we are the only ones — he bursts of to laugh ! ”
Sébastien Delaunay is also quiet: “I’m ready. Many of the participants are worried about the big steps in the sand, but for us it will be like the Abu Dhabi specials. I hope to finish this 40th edition of the Dakar with a good result, it would be the reward, for all the team, of a year of work. ”