Amateur pilot Hervé Quinet finds it hard to realize that a few hours ago he was still hurtling down the Saudi dunes in Saudi Arabia. “When I meet people, I’m afraid they’ll pinch me and wake me up (smiles). It’s crazy, it’s a funny feeling, well that’s it, we did it“, confides this Seine-et-Marnais entrepreneur to France Bleu Paris.
Marie-Laure, wife and co-pilot
A waking dream he shared with his wife, Marie-Laure, who was his co-driver during the event. “It wasn’t always easy, there were shouting matches every day, sometimes we even cut the microphone, we didn’t speak to each other, and within ten seconds I asked her for the information, she answered me, “no you told me to shut up” (laughs)“.
Hervé Quinet wanted to pay tribute to him: “she did an enormous job of navigation, she did it for me and I find that extraordinary, she had enormous courage. Taking passages of dunes 100, 200 meters high, with heights of 10 or 15 floors, it’s a little freaking out and she had the courage to face all that.”
The dunes, Marie-Laure Quinet admits, are almost “an obsession” since she returned to France. “I had never climbed and descended such large ones. At night, I had the impression that the headlights were not on. In fact, we were at the very top of a dune, obliquely. It was hard, but it went well with Hervé, I was“
8300 euros to help the Heart and Health association
Despite the mechanical problems, and sometimes the desire to stop everything, the couple and their team of 4 mechanics held on. “The Dakar is an emotional lift every day. Suddenly, it works well, an hour later, it doesn’t work well anymore. The penultimate special, which was considered the most selective, I won’t hide from you that we almost gave up“, confides Hervé Quinet. “But we held on thanks to our team, thanks to the support on social networks. This was our driving force. The tear on the finish line is not the dust that got into the car, but a tear of joy at having succeeded in this challenge for the association.“The duo finished in 68th position in the car category, more than 127 hours from the winner, but the essential is elsewhere.
Hervé Quinet, victim of a heart attack ten years ago and who should have given up on motor sports. This Dakar 2022 allowed him to return, in a way, the favor to the Heart and Health association, in Yonne, which plans to finance a rehabilitation center.