The First American to Ever Win Dakar … and Twice
Clint Esposito and myself chat with Ricky Brabec – 2X Dakar Rally champion. He discusses various aspects of rally racing as well as the rewarding experiences that come with traveling around the world.
Before that, we briefly discuss Adam Cianciarulo’s retirement announcement.
“In South America, the weather changes were incredibly different throughout the whole day. But in Saudi, it’s more or less like the same all day. You know, you get cold mornings and as a day goes on it gets to be a little bit nicer. And then some days, yeah, it’ll be cold in the morning or humid in the morning and then just 80 degrees in the finishing hours like 2 or 3 p.m.
But it’s not like South America, where it’s freezing in the morning and freezing mid-day, then blistering hot the next day. It’s more consistent weather in Saudi, so I think a lot of the racers and competitors and team members are a little bit more happy this way.
But I mean, honestly, this year we lucked out. You know, the weather was really, really nice all day. Some nights were a little bit chilly, but when the sun came up the weather was was fairly nice to us.“
Ricky Brabec – 2X Dakar Champion
