Iveco is competing at Dakar 2013 with five rally trucks. Considered the world’s premiere off-road rally, the Dakar challenges racers on some of South America’s most difficult terrains. Current Dakar champion Team De Rooy will drive one Iveco Powerstar and four Iveco New Trakkers along a route starting in Peru, crossing through Argentina and ending in Chile.
Team De Rooy and Iveco will face this exciting and extreme race together, defending their first place title achieved in 2012.
In anticipation of the upcoming rally, Iveco will start the project “You are in the Dakar,” in collaboration with Radio Deejay, a popular Italian radio station, and Deejay TV.
Through this initiative, an extreme sports journalist and blogger, Gross, and Radio Deejay’s very own dj Vic will report on the competition and keep the Iveco De Rooy Petronas team spirit high throughout race.
Gross will act as the official voice of Team Iveco and its pilots (Miki Biasion, Gerard De Rooy, Hans Stacey, René Kuipers and Jo Adua), following each stage of the race and sending daily updates to dakar.iveco.com. A filmmaker will accompany him, filming a Dakar-Iveco documentary about the race, vehicles and pilots along with behind-the-scenes footage from the team’s camp.
DJ Vic will recount success stories sent by Gross to Radio Deejay’s listeners. Videos from the preparatory phases will air from 21-25 January on Occupy Deejay, one of Deejay TV’s most popular programs.
The website dakar.iveco.com is live as of today and will be updated on a daily basis with race results and performance stats for Team Iveco. Photos and video sent from South America will also be posted.
The design of the website is subdivided into two sections. This idea reflects the two sides of an Iveco Trakker, a heavy vehicle that is ideal for both daily transport jobs as well as extreme off-road situations such as the Dakar. The first section of the website profiles the New Trakker by showcasing its technical characteristics and strong points. The second section of the website is dedicated to the Dakar with a countdown to the rally’s departure.
All of the stages of the race are also listed along with a dedicated Team area with biographies on the five competing pilots.
Dakar represents a great opportunity for Iveco to deploy and examine the performance and reliability of its products in extreme action. Each of its vehicles will be put to the test in extraordinary circumstances as they cross three of South America’s largest countries for a total of 8,000 kilometres.
