Dakar… via Le Mans!

Jacky Ickx, from racing car to 4x4 - Jacky Ickx is the only driver to have won both the 24 Hours of Le Mans and the Dakar. In 1983, a few short months after his sixth and final Le Mans victory (with Derek Bell in a Porsche 956), he triumphed in the Paris-Dakar at the wheel of a Mercedes 280 G with French actor Claude Brasseur as co-driver.

Porsche, from Le Mans to Africa – Porsche can not only boast a record seventeen victories at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, including its 2015 success, but has also taken the title in the Paris-Dakar twice. French driver René Metge gave the German manufacturer its first win in 1983 and repeated the feat in 1986. That same year he competed in the Le Mans 24 Hours in a 961 derived from the 959 that had been victorious in Africa a few months earlier. He finished the race seventh, sharing the wheel with countryman Claude Ballot-Léna.

Romain Dumas, from Porsche to Peugeot – Romain Dumas, a long-standing Porsche factory driver (who switched to Audi for his 2010 Le Mans victory alongside Timo Bernhard and Mike Rockenfeller), will be competing in his second Dakar rally this year. He will take the wheel of a Peugeot 2008 DKR15+ fielded by his own outfit RD Rally Team. In addition to three wins at the 24 Hours of Le Mans (1992, 1993 and 2009), Peugeot has also claimed four consecutive victories in the Dakar (from 1987 to 1990). At that time, Peugeot’s motorsport activities were spearheaded by Jean Todt, current FIA president and also the man behind the French manufacturer’s first two Le Mans successes.


Jean-Philippe Doret / ACO  |  Translated from French by Clair Pickworth

Photo: Roman Dumas’ Peugeot 2008 DKR15+ sports the colours of Mécénat Chirurgie Cardiaque, a charity that is also a regular partner of the 24 Hours of Le Mans. It brings children with heart defects from developing countries to France for surgery.