Xoan Silva, the ‘guardian angel’ of Laia Sanz

“This man is the master. is the master”He said Laia Sanz to MD pointing the finger at him just after completing the ‘miracle’ of reaching the end of stage 5 on Wednesday. He approached that humble boy, unwilling to take center stage and his face was surprised to see that someone like Laia Sanz couldn’t stop thanking him. Maurizio Gerini, co-pilot of Laia Sanz, affirmed with his head. He approached her and hugged her. “You’re so big,” he said in Italian, squeezing her with all his remaining strength. It is not for less. This is his particular ‘guardian angel’. We define Xoan Silva, the truck mechanic that the Astara Team has in the race to help its drivers with the damage they may suffer in the toughest race in the world. Beside Sergio Vallejocar driver who performs the functions of ‘backpacker’ for the Spanish team, this 31-year-old Galician is responsible for the Corbera de Llobregat team reaching the finish line when it seems impossible.

He reached kilometer 28 of stage 5 and found an environment full of destruction. Sergio Vallejo showed up earlier and warned Laia and Gerini that the damage to the car could be fixed because the chassis was fine. He needs truck parts and Xoan’s hands. Silva got out of the truck like he had to run the 100-meter dash., throwing the helmet on the ground and shouting all kinds of things to wake up those present in the arena. He has to work with the rest of the team. And he achieved it.

That moment was no more than a chance. Xoan, at first, did not plan to fulfill his dream of going to the Dakar, let alone doing it by racing on the track with a truck. everything comes from the ‘nose’ that this racing mechanic gave him one day he caught up with the leader of the Astara Team, Oscar Vallejo.

The Galician, a native of Boiro, a town near Santiago de Compostela, has always wanted to devote himself 100% to motor sport but he does not do so because of the lack of stability of the projects. For this reason, he combined his work as a competition mechanic with another to which he devoted three summer months: skipper of a leisure yacht. What he didn’t know was that it was precisely this second task that would lead him to his desire to compete in the Dakar. From the machine he met Diego Vallejo, a good friend of his. Diego goes to Xoan’s yacht with Óscar Fuertes to spend a few days on summer vacation. One afternoon, on the boat, they started talking. The whole afternoon was the talk. And at one point, Silva gave him a ‘nose’ and showed his candidacy to go to Dakar. And in the end, he got it.

A last minute decision

The second chance for him to finally reach the sands to help Laia and Gerini is in principle, Xoan has to be a mechanic of help, that is, he cannot be on the track to help the Catalan. But finally, at the last minute, They told him he was going to be a truck mechanic, in racing.

“They told me that at the end of November I will be on the truck. I didn’t expect to be in a truck. I already liked the one in the bivouac, but Having the opportunity that the Astara Team is giving me to run a Dakar, and also in a truck… it’s a dream. I always watch the Dakar on television, the summaries, and yes I like it, but never thought to be here in a truck racing a Dakar”. And much less being the star of one of the days Laia said she would never forget.

There, everyone present highlights the speed and clarity of thought Xoan had to work out the most complex problems. “We had to replace the rear driveshaft, two rear shock absorbers were damaged, the arms were made into seven and two tires were undercut and there was a lack of steering fluid.. And while you are organizing you still find things that are not visible. A control panel failure, the fuel pump not getting pressure… many things”.

Even though he tells Laia to take a few meters to test drive the car after more than 3 hours of repairs, they find the exhaust fuming. There was a fire. He made a sharp decision in the second: “We took the air from the truck to blow it out and don’t use the fire extinguisher so as not to damage the car and actually see that it is oil from the crash. We clean it up.”. you have to improvise a bit”, he pointed out. The rest is history.