After eating up the 588 km of the stage and a 33-minute delay due to a puncture and a broken suspension, in the Al-Ula camp the Qatari prince comes down from his chambers and goes to visit his Nasser Racing boys. He greets them one by one and is interested in how their day went, with the freezing air cutting into their faces. Of the four cars that Nasser al Attiyah pays for out of his pocket, four Taurus T3 Max (at more than 215,000 euros per unit), three are driven by his Qatari pupils – among them, his brother Khalifa. And the fourth is for his godson, so to speak. His friend, his partner, his colleague Eduard Pons (Lleida, 57 years old), a wine and oil businessman, who finds the balance between careers – he is the current champion of the FIA World Cup of casualties –, family and business.
Pons is the right eye of Al Attiyah, the five-time Dakar champion. Although the agroindustrial businessman, in his second participation, races in another division, the Challenger, a step lower than the T1+. They are buggy-type cars limited in speed (135 km/h) and power (177 HP). And Pons, thanks to Al Attiyah, has one of the best on the market.
“We had always found that we were not competitive enough because we did not have the necessary part, and this team gives it to us. There is a direct commitment from Al Attiyah to put us on the best platform,” explains Pons, who is not an upstart in the competition. The man from Lleida is a versatile driver who began competing in 1989 in the Volant RACC asphalt rallies. It has gone from the circuits – the Seat León Cup or the 24 Hours of Montmeló – to the gravel rallies of the Spanish championship, cross-country events and rally-raids, and some of the WRC2 World Championship.
Motorcycles
Schareina misses victory by 15 seconds
Tosha Schareina missed the victory of the 4th stage by 15 seconds, which was reduced in the final stretch by the insatiable Daniel Sanders (KTM), winner on four of the five days. A strategic move to avoid having to open the track today. With this good result, he rises to second place overall, 13m26s behind Sanders.
It was precisely through rallies that he met Al Attiyah, in 2020, both returning from a race in the Canary Islands. “In fact, the relationship with Nasser was born thanks to the Barcelona airport, which delivers the suitcases very late,” Pons points out. “That day I was waiting on the treadmill for three hours, and so was Nasser. That’s where our friendship began. Then we met many times, friction makes affection, and the relationship evolved from motorsport to the agricultural world.”
And this is where the agrarian facet of the Qatari appears, a lover of Catalonia. In his Can Ponç farmhouse in Castellfollit del Boix (Bages), on a 200-hectare farm, Al Attiyah has set up his training circuits, the Nasser Camp, but he also cares about the environment. “He has a project to plant olive trees because, with so many years of drought, he fears that the forest will invade his territory. This beautifies the area and serves as a firewall. He is the king of the steering wheel, but when it comes to oil issues we are there,” laughs Eduard.
But it is one thing to plant olive trees and another to give you a free car, as the generous Qatari already did with Albert Llovera in 2014, with Philippe Croiuzon in 2016 and with Romain Dumas, to whom he gave his Toyota Hilux at the gates of the Dakar 2019, when the Frenchman’s car burned in the prologue. Also with Pons it is a matter of trust. “In rally-raids you need mature and focused drivers, and Nasser has seen my management skills, I am physically strong, and for my age (57) I am in shape. I have demonstrated it with results and with a very high management capacity. Nasser wants guarantees, he doesn’t want outlandish drivers for his team. It is a great privilege to be part of the project, and also to be its right hand.”
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