Ignacio Casale, training and not afraid of anything
Although there were some doubts over the first South American acquisition after his switch from quads to trucks, a top ten finish in the inaugural Dakar, with Ignacio also racing as the only driver of a manual transmission truck, gave a solid answer to the question of how big the triple quad champion's chances are among the "heavyweights." Apparently, quite a few.
Since the end of the Dakar 2021, Ignacio has been preparing in domestic conditions, as Josef Machacek, the reigning winner of the light prototype category, let himself be heard in this context, the dunes in Chile can boldly compete with the sands in Saudi Arabia. "He's probably right, the training conditions are great, besides I'm not one of those drivers who have to force themselves to train, racing is my life. Even though I started out on the truck and I've done my first Dakar, I'm still learning and the learning process won't stop any time soon. The car surprises me with something every kilometre," says Ignacio. "I have the advantage of being able to communicate with David and the whole BTC because even here in Chile, more heads equals more brains. I had to get used to the time shift, but it works great. In addition, Martin Koloc and I have an agreement that whenever the team is testing in the Middle East, I am welcome, which was confirmed recently."
At the same time, Ignacio Casale rejects the vision that, given the dominance of the Kamaz specials, only fourth place will be contested at Dakar in the near future. "Although Kamaz enjoys an extraordinary status as the national team of Russia, they have unlimited financial and testing opportunities and more or less own the Silk Way Rally. On the other hand, if someone had said three years ago that the decades-dominant KTM would lose the bike race to Honda, they would have been, laughably so. The same will be true of Can-Am, the factories have realised what an attractive category this is and are going for it, Pepa Machacek will have a chase. So, I have a lot of respect for Kamaz and all the Russian drivers, but there is nothing to be afraid of."
