Henry Favre has raced within the desert on two wheels, however 2025 will deliver a brand new problem on 4 when he and Alessandro Iacovelli enter the Dakar Basic in a 1990 Mitsubishi Pajero.
“For months, my associate Alessandro and I’ve been engaged on the Pajero with which we’ll race the Dakar in Saudi Arabia in January. That’s proper, it hasn’t been run in Africa for a number of years, however the identify and problem are nonetheless the identical,” wrote Favre on Saturday.
“In December, the automobile leaves Barcelona on a pleasant massive iron pedal boat that can take all of the autos to Arabia. We’ll discover that upon disembarking, 800 kilometres of recent asphalt await us to succeed in the bivouac.”
The 2 acquired the Pajero in March from a workforce in Tuscany, however shortly discovered it was in dire want of restore akin to six injectors, a brand new energy steering system, doorways, and an RPM sensor. Iacovelli, a mechanic by commerce, led the restoration course of with help from R Staff. An Italian outfit, R Staff ready Mitsubishi Pajeros for Marco Ernesto Leva (completed seventh total), Giulio Bertolli (twenty-eighth), Stefano Sinibaldi (fortieth), Damiano Lipani (forty-fifth), and Giuliano Bergo (retired) on the 2024 Dakar Basic.
“The automobile was purchased at an excellent value, however upon stripping it down, we discovered that many issues had been incorrect. And so, in only a few months, we spent some huge cash and lots of hours redoing nearly every little thing,” Favre continued. “Now we now have an excellent start line to mess around, experiment, and pray that it breaks in the course of the testing slightly than within the race.”
Favre attended the 2023 Dakar Rally as a journalist working for Gazzetta Motori, an expertise that he advised Aostasera made him “[fall] in love” with the self-discipline and need to do himself. A model ambassador for Italian scooter aftermarket store Malossi, he later raced that 12 months’s Qatar Worldwide Baja (a part of the FIM Bajas World Cup) on a Suzuki DR350 SK42A, although he didn’t end.
The 2025 Dakar Basic, held together with the Dakar Rally, is scheduled for 3–17 January.
“We promise poor outcomes and we’ll most likely burn the clutch getting onto the beginning stage, however we can be there,” Favre quipped.
