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From wikipedia:
He started working in Tatra, Kopřivnice, Czechoslovakia, as a factory worker in 1967, later becoming a test driver. He competed with a Tatra 815 truck in the Dakar Rally for the first time in 1986, being disqualified from the 2nd place for arriving late to the last stage start. He competed 19 times between 1986-2006 and claimed six titles (1988, 1994, 1995, 1998, 1999, 2001), four second places (1987, 1996, 2000, 2002), one third place (1992), two fourth places (1990, 1991) and one seventh place (2004).
After his second victory in 1994, when he placed at the 6th place in the common auto-camion category some media started to call him Monsieur Dakar.
All the triumphs, the last in 2001, he won behind the wheel of a Tatra truck, with another brand in the legendary race did not start.
In 1986, Loprais made his first appearance at the start of the legendary competition from the French capital to the shores of the Senegalese pink lake, but he did not manage to reach the finish line.
Five Czech cars were in the top ten, and Loprais climbed to the medal positions in the end. But in the penultimate stage, a number of competitors in solisko bogged down and blocked the track. Their recovery lasted until the morning, Loprais and the others missed the start to the last stage and were disqualified.
Thus, they paid not only for the lack of experience, but also for the great willingness with which they helped opponents from the swamps. "It was minutes, and if it was light, we would have time control," recalled the infamous premiere Karel Loprais, who corrected his taste the following year, when he finished second. In 1988, his new four-wheel Tatra 815 with starting number 607 showed his back to all rivals and Loprais could rejoice at the first victory.
Dakar winning TATRA in 1988
In Dakar, Loprais rode a total of nineteen times and stood on the podium in 11 cases. He missed the finish line once due to an accident, was stopped twice by a crash, and the last time, in 2006, he did not finish due to pain in his ribs and back, which were the consequences of the 2003 crash.
Even today, Loprais remains the third most successful participant of Dakar - only Frenchman Stéphane Peterhansel (six times among motorcycles, eight times among cars) and Russian Vladimir Chagin (seven times among trucks) have won more times.
Paris - Algerie - Dakar 1981
nedokončil = not finished
Nowadays his nephew Aleš Loprais continues in his footprints. The younger Loprais first competed on the Dakar Rally in 2006 as navigator to his uncle Karel, and from 2007 he has competed as a driver for Tatra. Aleš Loprais has scored several stage victories in the Dakar Rally, his best overall result being third place in 2007.
Dakar Tatra 4x4 Puma
Happy driving in Heaven,
Monsieur Dakar !
Margaret
