Romain Dumas, an all-rounded driver with a knack for car racing, is discovering the Dakar this year. He did not know he was literally going to take the plunge…The learning curve at the Dakar is rarely shallow, even for a two-time winner of the 24 Hours of Le Mans and recent champion of the Pikes Peak race.
The day and night lived by Romain Dumas on the way to Uyuni are yet more proof of this, if any were needed. As if navigation and the altitude did not make the stage difficult enough, the weather made most of the course muddy or even worse. “Simply put, my car turned into a boat. Our screen washer bailed out on us from the start, which made things difficult enough already. Of course, there was mud everywhere, so we couldn’t see a thing. As a result, we smashed into a big hole which left our neck all sore. A bit further down the road, we got into a riverbed and did it quite well. But water came up to the seat! So I got stuck on stones I hadn’t seen and the buggy let so much water in that the electronics just blew up.”
After several hours working on the riverbed, Romain and his co-driver, François Borsotto, were rescued by a group of Bolivians without whom they probably never would have made it to Uyuni. However, it was a marathon stage after all, so the fun was not over yet: “We worked on the car until three in the morning. We had to find out which sensor was faulty, get a new one from Jean-Pierre Strugo and replace it.”
After a mere three hours of sleep, the apprentice of the art to drive on courses and riverbeds was the last competitor to set off for Salar de Uyuni from the parc fermé. Having almost pulled an all-nighter, he did not seem too happy with his baptism of fire in Bolivia: “I hate it when we get into trouble. I’m just happy it’s over.”