Bernard Andrieux: “ I’ll never forget the force and solidarity that it creates in the caravan “
For the past few years, bad luck had been riding shotgun with Bernard Andrieux on the Dakar. The businessman suffered three straight mechanical related retirements and had a horrendous accident while at the wheel of an unreliable Nissan prototype. Year after year, the frustration has continued to mount. He is certainly not a neophyte and has some very respectable results to his credit, including a 26th place finish the year the rally finished in Cape Town after descending the length of Africa. In wanting to move up a few positions into the top 20, the racer from the French town Bourges opted to compete, in a more difficult to drive and prepare, prototype. For this year, he decided to change cars for the Dakar and bought his old Toyota proto to boost his chances of making it to Senegal. Since his first rally raid, the Pharaohs Rally back in 1990, Bernard Andrieux has had a fascination for the mysteries of the desert. He found in this amazing world “a decompression chamber”, which allows him to take a break from a very busy career. While he works just as much as ever, there’s no chance of Bernard Andrieux denying himself of the desert. Once again he will embark on his adventure with co-driver Marc Aivazian. This baker from the south of France is a Dakar veteran with four participations in both the motorbike and car division. Today his attention is focused on navigation, which has become more essential than ever on the Dakar. This science of the desert, which is more than simple math, is something Marc Aivazian likes very much. After having made it to the finish numerous times, these two men will be looking to end their string of bad luck and drive along the shores of Lake Rose, neither at a crawl nor presumptuously.