MADRID, 29 Nov. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Uruguayan driver Patricia ‘Pato’ Pita is now ready to take on her second Dakar Rally, which she will do behind the wheel of one of the Astara Team’s ‘buggys’, with which she hopes, despite her “little sand experience”, to be able to fight to “get on the final podium” in a test that attracts her mainly because “it always takes you to the limit” and where she will share a team with the Spanish Laia Sanz, “a reference as a woman in this motor sport.”
“As an objective, taking into account the little experience I have in sand and cross country, an excellent result would be to be able to get on the final podium in my category and win the ‘Dakar Finisher’ medal. It is not easy, we are all very competitive and We always want the best result, but finishing a Dakar is very difficult and a huge achievement,” said Patricia Pita in an interview for Europa Press after the presentation of the Astara Team.
The one from Punta del Este presents her second Dakar as “a great challenge” to which she goes with “a great desire to continue learning.” “I come from the world of gravel rallies and for me it is a very great opportunity, I feel privileged to be able to be with this team. We have to add kilometers and go stage by stage and take the car to the end, which is no small feat. “, he pointed.
‘Pato’ opened up about how it was his first Dakar that he did in a UTV (light vehicle). “Obviously hitting a jump like this, which is a T1, with a lot of power and rear-wheel drive, presents me with a very nice challenge on a personal level and also for my sporting career,” he said.
“The most difficult thing in reality of the entire last Dakar was to raise last year’s budget, since it was very demanding on an emotional level and I had to do crowdfunding and send raffles, in addition to the fact that the sponsors appeared very on the date and it was very difficult, but I also feel that it prepared me a lot because I experienced many impressions,” he added in this regard.
It was an edition in which the 34-year-old driver only had “five days” of sand experience in the Atacama Rally and in which he had to face his “fears” from the first moment, such as driving “at night”, something that he directly had to do it in “the first stage.” “I drove four hours at night with a team that was doing it for the first time and we all met at the airport. I went without assistance in the race, I arrived very tight and we were still able to carry everything forward. For me, one of the things The most beautiful thing about the Dakar is that it always pushes you to the limit,” he said.
The driver, in addition to being the first Uruguayan woman to participate in rallies, has been competing for more than ten years and believes that she can extrapolate “a lot” from this for this Dakar. “The skills, the technical, there is a lot of dirt, stone, trials, which with my rally experience I have covered and it is where I feel most comfortable. Apart from that, this car behaves in the best way and we can take advantage,” he clarified.
“I started in Uruguay when I was 24 years old without having a basis in karting or any other discipline and I learned rallying when I was two years old. To improve I moved from Uruguay as it was a very flat country, with little variety of surface and I I went to Córdoba, in Argentina, where I began competing throughout Argentina on a variety of different types of soil,” he explained.
‘Pato’ is clear that his co-pilot, the Chilean Paolo Boggioni, has taught him “a lot” and is a person who “has grown up in the desert”, more specifically in Copiapó (Chile). “I feel like we’ve been making leaps and bounds in terms of how I’m improving in sand and I think obviously the basis in rally as a technician, I think he’s excellent too,” he noted.
Regarding her experienced teammate, the Spanish Laia Sanz, the Uruguayan considers her “a reference as a woman in this motor sport” as well as an “idol.” “When we were in Morocco we met there and he is an incredible person, he also had an incredible gesture with me and sat in the co-pilot seat, I liked his advice and I value that a lot because it really is a very nice gesture,” he confessed. .
“I would like him to get on the podium obviously, he is a very humble person and I consider that he is a driver who is at a ‘top’ level. For us, the objective is to finish and get on the podium for the ‘Dakar Finisher’ medal and take the two Astara Team cars until the end,” he concluded.