“The Dakar is a huge emotional elevator. Not a ten-storey tower, but a 100-storey building! I have realized a 35-year-old dream, but I can’t believe it, I’m afraid to wake me up! It’s like I’m still on the plane, and I’m going to ask the pilot not to land, because I still want to fly for a while.” At the end of the line this Friday evening, 4,300 km from Auxerre as the crow flies, Hervé Quinet, 58, is a happy man. He and his wife, Marie-Laure, have just completed the 44th edition of the Dakar rally in Jeddah (Saudi Arabia) for their first participation with the team from Les Clérimois Auto Sport.
Residents of Compigny, Hervé and Marie-Laure, long-time amateur driver and co-driver, finished in 68th place in the car category with their yellow and black 4×4 after two weeks of racing and 12 intense specials. In all, 165 hours, 57 minutes and nine seconds in the Saudi desert, 127 hours, 24 minutes and six seconds faster than the category-winning duo, Nasser Al-Attiyah and Matthieu Baumel.
The couple therefore covered more than 8,200 km through the dunes and sand despite many pitfalls: broken clutch and turbo, rollover… Misadventures recounted each evening at the end of the special on their Facebook page “Le Team Quinet ML et RV at the “Heart” of DAKAR 2022″ through various well-attended lives, with many behind-the-scenes unveiled at the bivouac.
At the finish, I was in tears, I cried – Hervé Quinet, “finisher” of the Dakar rally
Several times, the couple feared abandonment. But that was without taking into account their iron will, and the enormous work of the team of mechanics, always there to repair every glitch night and day. With at the end, this feat of being “finish” of the most prestigious rally-raid in the world. Hervé Quinet, fond of car racing and overwhelmed by emotions, hardly believed it a few hours after crossing the finish line.
Between 8,000 and 8,500 euros will be donated to the Joigny cardiac rehabilitation center
The Quinet couple had undertaken to donate one euro per kilometer traveled to the Joigny cardiac rehabilitation center, through which Hervé passed. There, the Icaunais regained hope of one day being able to realize his dream, he who suffered a heart attack in February 2011 followed by three heart operations, and to whom the end of his sporting ambitions was predicted. . So, having succeeded in making his “Heart and health” association shine to bring back a check for the amount “between 8,000 and 8,500 euros” for the Jovignian establishment is the greatest reward, especially given the media enthusiasm aroused by its history.
Will we see Hervé Quinet take part in his second Dakar next year? “Jokers!” The interested party prefers to stay on his cloud before thinking about it. Above all, that no one pinch him!