They were used to seeing the Dakar go by, and now they are participating for the second year in a row. The Chesneau brothers, originally from Vennecy in the Loiret, together form the FS team. “We are one of those Orleans residents who saw the Dakar go by when we were in our twenties“, remembers Frédéric Chesneau. He still lives in Loiret, in Châteauneuf-sur-Loire, while his older brother, Stéphane, settled in Reunion.”Now, we are in our fifties and for us it had always been a dream to participate in this extreme adventure. “In 2021, the dream came true: the two brothers embarked aboard their SSV, a light vehicle, to navigate the dunes of Saudi Arabia. They finished in 23rd place in their category.
30th in the standings at mid-term
For the moment, the 2022 edition of the rally is going quite well for the FS team. At the end of stage 6, which ends in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia where the pilots were able to enjoy a day of rest this Saturday, the two brothers are 30th in the classification of their category. “The first six stages went rather well, we even finished 11th on stage 3, that’s good, it shows that we have potential and that we can still progress“, explains Frédéric Chesneau.”We were pretty good until the fourth stage where we had a big mechanical problem, we broke the rear arm of our SSV [leur véhicule].” Results, the two brothers lost four hours, the time to repair the damage.
For this second week, and for travel the remaining 3,000 kilometers, “the objective is not to break any parts on the vehicle and to scavenge a few places”. The loirétains hope to do as well as last year. “For us it would be a satisfaction”, enthuses Frédéric Chesneau. “Up front are the big teams, they are professionals, it is extremely difficult to get the first fifteen places.” Above all, for both pilots, the goal is to finish the race. “It’s not an easy task, because you have to mix speed and safety, and that’s not always easy!”
And the Chesneau brothers can count on their complementarity to get to the finish line. They alternate between the positions of pilot and co-pilot every other day. Aircraft pilot, Frédéric was part of the French aerobatic team between 1999 and 2008, he was even crowned world champion in 2002. “I really like navigation, Stéphane has always been very good at piloting“, he explains. His brother, rather cut his teeth on the handlebars of two-wheelers, with in particular a participation in the Riyad, emblematic motorcycle race on sand in the Pas-de-Calais.
From the start, we knew that this Dakar would not have the same flavor
This 44th edition of the Dakar takes place in a particular context, after the explosion of the vehicle driven by Loirétain Philippe Boutron, president of USO football, before the start of the race. “Stéphane and I are very close to Philippe, it is mainly thanks to him that we were able to do our first Dakar last year”, says Frédéric Chesneau. “From the start, we knew that this Dakar would not have the same flavor, because with this incident, we knew that Philippe would not be able to participate. Of course, we think of him every day.”
Whereas the thesis of the attack is considered, the question of stopping the rally arises. A question that was not obvious at the start, testifies Frédéric Chesneau. “A week ago, we were talking about an accident between two cars, with minor injuries, we only realized later that it was something more serious.“In the absence of having delayed the start, or canceled the race, security has been reinforced on the Dakar. “We pay great attention to our movements outside the race,” explains the pilot. “The organizers have reinforced security around the bivouac in particular, because there are more than 3,000 people and a lot of machines. There are therefore checks at all entrances.”