Checa: “I said to my copy: ‘You will see what MotoGP racing is'”

Carlos Checa he wants to win the battle against the dangers lurking in the most suffering race on the planet. In his second participation in Dakar, he wanted to take his private revenge on the brutality and brutality of this event, returning with a more ambitious project, the Astara Team, with Laia Sanz and Óscar Fuertes as co-drivers and Marc Solà as co-driver. And after almost 9,000 kilometers of the stage, about 5,000 special hours, Carlos Checa managed to cross the finish line of Dammam with a big smile. A year after doing it for the first time, but without a ‘finisher’ medal, he has fully achieved it and can now hang his award around his neck. The second chance was the charm for Carlos who was able to finish the Dakar in style, with his best stage result: a 10th position in the 14th special that he can now frame for memory.

In his first Dakar, in the last edition of 2022, the former MotoGP rider experienced firsthand what it means to participate in the toughest race in the world. He did this by wading through the mud like a lifelong Dakarian. He was seen enjoying the speed on the open track, crashing while accelerating and gaining confidence in the desert, but he also saw up close the bitter and harsh part of the race, suffering a serious accident in a top speed zone. His mentality is a Dakarian. He doesn’t want to throw in the towel, ever he has to do the hardest thing: keep his patience out of the car. In 2022, he suffered while waiting for the arrival of a piece that would allow him to rejoin the race. Time passed and his worry increased because he did not know when the thing would arrive that would allow him to fix his car. MD finds him in the dining room, brooding, worried about his car, and anxious to get back to the gas station. He was hunched over, eating his breakfast while thinking. Injured. I know things are very complicated but I never lose hope. And finally he sped up again. He had to use the maximum 3 days he had as a limit to rejoin the race and continue competing, with a huge penalty.

He then manages to reach the final goal, but he does so without receiving a finisher’s medal. It was a ‘thorn’ that he wanted to remove. And he did it a year later, with a great participation with Solà where he showed great speed and tenacity. Several mechanical problems in the second week of the race kept him from fighting for the overall Top-20, as well as an initial setback in the navigation. But he could also say he was lucky, because he overturned and was able to recover his car by inertia, continuing the march and reaching the camp.

For all this, Carlos arrived in Dammam euphoric. “I am very happy in general for all the work every day and very satisfied to be here, to have arrived and finally done a complete Dakar. Last year I reached the end, but it was not complete. And this year. And it wasn’t easy, because everything happened to us. There are many things outside the team and other things that can happen. And we had to resign and accept it. Without that, it would have been a slightly different Dakar, better positioned, but everyone has problems and the best thing is the way we faced it and how we took it”, he pointed to MD with a big smile , highlighting that he went into the final stage as if it was “a MotoGP race”.

Incredible Top-10 on stage 14: “Just like in MotoGP”

“Today the stage is one of total pleasure. I said to Marc (Solà, his co-driver): ‘Marc, don’t brake me now because I will be full throttle. It will be like a MotoGP race’. And I’ve done the 10th. Fuck. I said: Do you know what a MotoGP or Superbike race is? Well, you can see it now. And it has been going out to the fullest and reaching the fullest”, he revealed next to his car, laughing.

Checa clearly wants to enjoy every last kilometer. For this reason, instead of betting on savings in the last stage and slowing down to finish, he decided to go all out: “Is it better to hide? Yes, I know, but I like to run, I like to take risks and I like to rush. The Dakar can be finished in many ways, but I want to finish it by racing to the maximum and doing a stage like we did. The goal is to run further than others, and obviously, to arrive. We’ve taken a lot of precautions because the mechanics need it, but this stage 14 is a day to enjoy. When I go to the limit is when I have the best time”, he explained with a smile.

The big question: will he return to the Dakar?

After two participations, Carlos Checa has fulfilled the goals he set at the beginning of his Dakarian adventure. He showed speed, Dakarian spirit, resistance, fighting skills, dedication and in his second attempt he got the ‘finisher’ medal. After these two desert experiences, the question is whether we will see him again next year and if the Dakar ignited his competitive ambition to face a new challenge in a car that allowed him to choose to achieve better results in general.

“I think my competitive life on a motorcycle has been full and fulfilling and I am very proud and happy to have achieved it. The Dakar is an experience I did last year and this year there is a more interesting project, a Spanish project, with Laia Sanz and Óscar Fuertes. I was delighted, a project that also has the theme of sustainability, through biofuel. Many things made him rich. And besides, the competitive issue with Marc Solà (his co-driver). We have made a great tandem and it has been a success to have him. It helped me a lot and automatically made us more competitive”, he explained.

“We had a great time. I lived the experienceI already know what it is and I personally think that if Marc and I had to give each other a grade, it would have to be a very high grade, because we failed very little. From there… try to be more competitive and enter the race in search of results? This is another story that at the moment I am not considering. But if there’s a chance, obviously I really want to. And in the last stage, accelerated at full speed, I had a better time”, added the Catalan. It does not close the doors, but obviously, it does not enjoy the big sponsorships that help pay for its adventure. No that allowed him to think about something bigger, and even if he wanted to go back, it wasn’t something he could confirm at this time.

“Back? It depends. We’ll see. If there are interesting ingredients to return to a good situation, well, I’m not saying no”, he stated. Of course, there is one thing that is more clear: “If I come back, with Marc Solà, that’s for sure.”