Chilean sport has two figures closely related to the Dakar: Ignacio ‘the dog’ Casale and Francisco ‘Chaleco’ López. In addition to the peculiarity of their nicknames, both have in common the concern to reinvent themselves within the race. Casale managed to win the Dakar three times in the quad category and now he is competing in trucks, but he has also done it with a motorcycle and a ‘Side by Side’. For its part, ‘Chaleco’ López started on the back of a motorcycle, and then started a race among the light buggies.
Now, Casale and ‘Chaleco’ share honors, as both have won the Dakar three times. It is true that Ignacio Casale’s triplet came in quads and that of ‘Chaleco’ López was between the different categories born from the ‘Side by Side’ concept, but the merit is equally enormous. At the end, ‘Chaleco’ won the Dakar in 2019 when all the ‘Side by Side’ raced together (T3 and T4), he won it again in 2021 over a production ‘Side by Side’ (T4) and in 2022 it has conquered the ‘Touareg’ with a lightweight prototype (T3).
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A triumph this last curious, almost particular. And not because of the performance of ‘Chaleco’ López, but because of how the race has developed. Red Bull OT3 prototypes have proven to be faster than the Can-Ams used by ‘Chaleco’ López or Sebastian Eriksson, but both have achieved a magnificent double at the end of the Dakar in the face of reliability problems, especially at the transmission level, of the cars of the golden wing brand. In their flesh they have lived it Seth Quintero, Cristina Gutierrez, Guillaume De Mevius and Andreas Mikkelsen.
One by one, due to punctual piloting failures and mechanical problems, have been giving way to ‘Chaleco’ López towards his third Dakar, victory that seemed very clear from the first week of the rally given this circumstance. And it doesn’t matter that Seth Quintero finished the Dakar with twelve stage wins and a new record to brag about in this aspect, if in the only stage that he has not won he had to retire and rejoin the race.
At the end, ‘Chaleco’ López has taken the Dakar without making any noise, since at the media level all eyes have been on the controversial record of Seth Quintero. Also at a sporting level, the Chilean’s performance has been silent and effective, since he has taken his third ‘Touareg’ without winning a single stage. In the end, a curious circumstance that does not tarnish the great work of ‘Chaleco’ and that allows Chile to have a Dakar winner uninterruptedly since 2018, since Casale or López have interspersed their triumphs since then.