“The day they tell me they don’t run anymore, I’ll be happier”

The camp undergoes transformation as the sun changes position in the middle of the desert. An empty rectangle, delimited by fences, begins to fill up as the trucks and assistance arrive, while the competitors accelerate in the middle of the race. Dakar.

The caravan of heavy transport, vans and all types of motorhomes They travel along Saudi routes and highways until they reach the camp, which quickly after mid-morning takes on color and life.

There, mounted on a bicycle, he walked Norberto Benavideswhich arrived last Friday at Saudi Arabia to accompany their children, true protagonists of the Dakar. Kevinfor being the last winner of the most extreme race on the planet, and Lucianocurrent world champion of the specialty.

Norberto was a motorcycle pilot. He ran in Enduro, and was always linked to the world of two wheels. As an athlete, as a competitor, as a businessman and merchant in Salta. The passion for vertigo and speed was passed on to his children, who learned very well and took Argentina to the top in the off-road specialty.

“Kevin was little and I made him compete. I remember there was a lazy guy who beat everyone, and Kevin was right behind him. I told him that he had to pass him in the curves, that that’s where races are won. That he had to dare to put the rear wheel into the rope, to overcome it, or jump off the outside, but that you didn’t have to follow him. And Kevin, after listening to me, did it. And he passed it, and he started winning. “No one stopped him,” Norberto remembers at the main entrance to the camp. Al Dawadimito the geographical center of Saudi Arabia, waiting for her children.

“Luciano started running when he was younger. Already at five years old he was running. He didn’t look out of place despite his young age, and of course he immediately showed that he had a lot of speed for motorcycles,” said the man from Salta.

Time passed and the boys grew up. Not only in age, with Kevin being 35, and Luciano being 28, but they also made the family great, which dominates the activity in the world order, with the Dakar and the world title of the W2RC.

But Norberto highlights that there are aspects that are more important than the results, although he still does not seem to appreciate everything his children have achieved: “The truth is that I can’t believe it today. It is very difficult to get into this environment, to fight against the best. Then it is more complex to get in front. Not to mention that one is a Dakar winner and another is a world champion. And they’re both my kids, that’s amazing. It happens to me that I still think about it and I can’t believe that all this will happen.”

Despite the titles, Norberto, dressed in a brand new team shirt KTMteam in which Kevin races (Luciano is in Husqvarnawho also belongs to the Austrian group), confessed to Clarion: “I am happy in life with their achievements. But the day they tell me they don’t run anymore, I’ll be happier. But the truth is, I’m scared shitless (laughs). What do you want me to say? You suffer a lot. The fact that he was a pilot is worse, because you know what can happen. When we raced Enduro we put fourth by chance. Here they go deep into the entire stage, so it scares me a lot.”

The dialogue seemed to be a distraction for Don Benavides, who admitted that looking for distractions while his children accelerate at full speed on unknown terrain, where the danger is enhanced in an activity, like all motor sports, that carries its own risks: “While they are running the stage, I pray to God. Many believe that I am watching the times, that I am aware of each stage. “I’m not interested in anything, I just want them to arrive safely.”

After a while, the Benavides brothers arrived together. Kevin was second, 3m12s behind the Chilean Ignacio Cornejo (Honda), while Luciano finished third. However, the defender of the Dakar 2023 victory is now in 5th place, 21m39s from the top of the general classification, while Luciano remains 8th, 43m12s away (with the 15-minute penalty included for the engine change ).

The pilots arrived exhausted from the extensive route of the 7th stage, with 873 kilometers. “We woke up at 3:30 and before 5 we went out, at night, to run the stage,” said Kevin, who just wanted to rest. Diego Llanos it’s 23°, Santiago Rostan30° y Santiago Urquía75°.

On quadricycles, Manuel Andujar had won the cap, but then received a 15-minute penalty for failing to go through a way point and now the french Alex Giroud He is only 6 minutes behind the Argentine pilot, the leader.

In cars, it seems that the race will have a head-to-head definition with two former world rally champions: Carlos Sainz (Audi) y Sebastien Loeb (Prodrive), who won the stage and reduced the difference in the general standings to 19 minutes with respect to the Spanish driver. The Mendoza Juan Cruz Yacopini It is located 24th in the table.

The Argentine representation suffered a scene shock with the breakage of the differential of the Cordoba’s Taurus Nicolás Cavigliassowhich definitively delayed him to marginalize him from any fight in the category Challengerwhich in the last few hours suffered the exclusion of the Polish Goczal family, which they dominated at will, but the use of an unauthorized carbon clutch in their vehicles was noted.

The activity will continue on Monday, with the 8th stage, with the connection between the Al Dawadimi and Ha’il camps, over a route of 678 kilometers, of which 458 will be special.