Laurent Fouquet is a big name in many disciplines of motor sports. Now, the time has come for him to hit the tracks of the Dakar, a race in which he will take part both as a driver and as an assistant… in the beginning of his quest for glory.
A new life begins at the age of 40. Laurent Fouquet is among those who are carefully planning their Dakar debut, with more than 20 years in the elite category under his belt and a trophy room full of numerous victories earned on dirt or sand tracks. The young driver from Bordeaux took his first win in the Cross Car French Cup in 1992. He has since had a go at numerous races and bolstered his palmarès (Autocross and Off-road Rally French Championships, Baja de France, Shamrock, etc.) while patiently making his way towards the Dakar: “It goes without saying that I’ve been thinking of it for a while, as it’s the logical conclusion of everything I’ve done so far. But I’ve always wanted to take my time before signing up, in order to make sure I could produce a decent performance. This year we got a chance to race with the Sodicars team, meaning we could build a high-performance car.“
The pilot/assistant learnt the trade of buggy design from his father and is set to face a technical challenge. For the family business, the 2013 Dakar could very well turn out to be the start of a long story in which Laurent wants to play a major role: “My goal is to finish in the Top 10 of the general classification. I’ve won almost everything I’ve entered during my career. So my aim is to go one step further and be ready to take the fight to the elite drivers in three, four or five years. I’ve still got a lot to prove right now”, explains the ambitious driver, who thinks his car can pull something out of its hat. “We’ve just spent a week testing the car in Morocco and it surprised me with a great performance. For example, I was afraid it would have overheating problems, but actually it didn’t overheat at all.” The moment of truth will come in Peru.
