The countdown to the Dakar Rally is underway. With 18 days left before the race begins on January 5, from the ancient city of Al-Ula, the KH-7 gathered its pilots before they left for the adventure of Saudi Arabia. The leading Spanish brand in kitchen cleaners will support its brand ambassadors who, in the next edition of the emblematic test, will participate in vehicles powered by different energies and alternative fuels.
Laia Sanz, Isidre Esteve and KH-7 ECOVERGY Team members Jordi Juvanteny, José Luis Criado and Xavier Ribas took the opportunity to present the main axes of their respective sports projects. The common denominator of the three teams supported by KH-7 is the commitment to move towards zero emissions. In this way, its Dakar adventure is linked to KH-7’s business strategy, which has been working on maintenance standards for many years. Without further ado, the iconic packaging of the brand’s products is now fully recyclable.
“The commitment to sustainability led us to create this year a translucent container – no pigments -, 100% recyclable, with 22.5% less plastic and which is the lightest bottle on the market at only 28 grams ,” he says. Josep Mª Lloreda, president of KH Lloreda. “It is a great pleasure that the three teams we support in Dakar share the concern for sustainable development in all areas, as well as in motorsport and, especially, in Dakar.”
Laia Sanz, for her third attack on four wheels
For Laia Sanz, the 2024 Dakar Rally will be her 14th participation, the third she will compete in cars after a successful race on motorcycles. The 20-time Trials (14) and Enduro (6) world champion has just returned from Chile, where he finished runner-up in Extreme E, with Mattias Ekström, little known after taking the lead for a good part of the season and showing great form behind the wheel. In this edition of the Dakar Rally, he will participate with a buggy from the Astara evolved team, where he hopes to fight for the category T1.2 (two-wheel drive) with his co-pilot, the Italian Maurizio Gerini, in a project with a mission to create a completely neutral carbon footprint.
“With the Astara team and with companies like KH-7 they are very concerned about respecting the environment, and I think, in general, motorsport is taking big steps in this regard, as is also being done us in the Dakar, with this synthetic fuel.”, predicts Laia Sanz. “It’s about leaving the smallest footprint possible; Society is changing and the future of motorsport depends on respecting the environment .”
The limitless challenge of Isidre Esteve
Isidre Esteve is on the starting line for the 19th time in the toughest race in the world of motorsport, the ninth in a car and the second in his new Toyota Hilux T1+, where he will share the adventure with his co-driver Txema Villalobos. The one from Oliana (Lleida) will once again try to be as competitive as he can with an adapted vehicle, where he hopes to fight for a place in the Top 20 and surpass the 21st place he achieved in 2018 and 2019. In addition, It will do so with a 70% renewable fuel developed by Repsol to reduce emissions.
“Motorsport cannot lose sight of the great goal of being more sustainable; Society cannot go in one direction and the world of competition in another,” insists Isidre Esteve. “We have been working on this project with Repsol for more than two years. The goal is zero emissions. Right now, we have fuel that has low emissions and allows us to be competitive. As KH- 7 in developing its products, we all made this commitment and are proud to contribute in a direct way to this change.”
Juvanteny, Criado and Ribas, the pioneers of hydrogen
As for Jordi Juvanteny and José Luis Criado, they have accumulated no less than 63 participations in the Dakar: 31 for the Catalan pilot and 32 for the co-pilot from Jaén, the Spanish participant with the most participation in the queen of raids. Together they went through three periods of their career, from the early days in Africa to Saudi Arabia, passing through the years in South America. The third crew member in the cabin is Xavi Ribas, who is responsible for the innovative technology that allows Juvanteny’s veteran MAN 6×6 to use a hydrogen/HVO mixture (renewable diesel from disposable oils) as fuel. This iconic truck has accumulated 17 victories in 6×6 and four in Production. The latest is in 2022 in the 6×6 (although in that year there is no official classification in the category), when the engine is powered by LPG (liquefied gas) and an eco-fuel from Repsol, and in 2021, then in both sections , 6×6 and Production. In 2024 they will participate in the new Mission 1000 category, for alternative energy sources.
“This is the third year of this project, in which we are fully involved, with more and more courage and more projections towards the future. The carbon footprint of our truck will be almost zero. We want to show that there is another way of doing races, another way of participating,” said José Luis Criado. For his part, driver Jordi Juvanteny added: “The Dakar is a test bed to test the revolutionary mechanics that it to transfer it to the conventional world. This is the big challenge: if we can make the engine work with maximum demands in Dakar, it will also work in everyday life.
Dakar 2024 is the 46th edition of the legendary race and the fifth held in Saudi Arabia. The total route is about 8,000 kilometers, almost 5,000 timed on different types of terrain (track, sand, sand, rock…) that will test the performance and endurance of the cars and their drivers. The exam will end on January 19 in Yanbu, on the coast of the Red Sea.
Source: La Verdad
I’m Rose Herman and I work as an author for Today Times Live. My expertise lies in writing about sports, a passion of mine that has been with me since childhood. As part of my job, I provide comprehensive coverage on everything from football to tennis to golf.
