Draft:Gianni Lora Lamia

• Comment: Far too much unreferenced information. And some of the citations are malformed, please check and correct. DoubleGrazing (talk) 14:12, 9 February 2025 (UTC)

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Gianni Lora Lamia
Gianni Lora Lamia Nissan Motorsport Team Dessoude at the 21st 1999 Granada–Dakar Rally
Born	(1965-01-16) January 16, 1965 Trivero, Italy
Nationality	Italian
Years active	1989 Paris–Dakar Rally – 2004 Dakar Rally
Television	Eurosport TV Commentator for Dakar Rally and Rally Raid
Honours	"Dakar Legends Priority Driver"
Racing licence	FIA International C Licence IT 29343
Dakar Rally career Years active 1989 Paris-Tunis-Dakar 1990 Paris-Tripoli-Dakar 1991 Paris-Tripoli-Dakar 1992 Paris-Sirte-Le Cap 1993 Paris-Dakar 1995 Granada-Dakar 1998 Paris-Granada-Dakar 1999 Granada-Dakar 2000 Paris-Dakar-Cairo 2001 Paris-Dakar 2002 Arras-Madrid-Dakar 2003 Marseille-Valencia-Sharme El Sheik 2004 Région d'Auvergne-Tanger-Dakar Teams Astra Trucks Nissan France Nissan Motorsport Nismo MMSP Mitsubishi Motors Ralliart Co-driver Mario Bruzzi Giovanni Cassini Roberto di Persio Starts 14 Best finish 14th Overall in Granada-Dakar 1999

Gianni Lora Lamia Donin (born 16 January 1965) is an Italian Rally and Rally Raid driver.

Racing career

Gianni Lora Lamia participated in the Dakar Rally from 1989 to 2007 as well as other Rally Raids such as Pharaons Rally in Egypt, Rally of Tunisia, Atlas Rally Maroc and Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge. , former UAE Desert Challenge, at the same time, cooperated with almost of the works teams for development of of several winning rally raid cars.

Gianni Lora Lamia is on the priority list of drivers with more than 10 participation in the Dakar Rally, called Dakar Legend Priority. created by the organization of the race A.S.O. Amaury Sport Organisation

Range Rover No Stop Record 1989

Before the Paris-Dakar, in 1989 he was one of the drivers who carried out the No Stop endurance test with Range Rover, which included the departure from the island of Elba in Italy reaching Niamey, the capital of Niger in Africa crossing Algeria and Niger passing through the Agadez oasis in the Sahara desert and back to the Island of Elba. The car used for the challenge was a completely new and strictly standard 1989 Range Rover TDI 2-door, made available for the event by Land Rover Italy. To make the challenge even more difficult, Land Rover wanted the hood of the car to be sealed, to prevent any interventions on the engine.

Paris-Dakar-Rally

His debut in Africa was at the 12th edition of the 1990 Paris-Tripoli-Dakar with an Astra BM309 6x6 truck from Astra Veicoli Industriali, a truck that was used at the Dakar in previous years by Princess Caroline of Monaco and Stefano Casiraghi,before entering the Ténéré desert, still in Libya, he was forced to withdraw from the race

Paris-Tripoli-Dakar 1991

The fisrt participation in the car category was for the following edition of the 13th Paris-Tripoli-Dakar 1991, where he was entered into the race in a Nissan Terrano WD21 3.0 V6, by the historic French team Nissan Dessoude led by the Nissan rally raid wizard André Dessoude and supported at the time by the French importer Richard Nissan S.A., with the codriver Giovanni Cassini at his side, the crew was forced to retire due to electronic engine problems, after the rest day in the oasis of Agadez in Niger.

Paris-Sirte-Cape Town 1992

In 1992 he was entered in the 14th edition of the Paris-Sirte-Le Cap, the longest Dakar Rally ever held, starting from Paris and arriving in Cape Town in South Africa, crossing the whole of Africa from north to south, 22 stages, 12,427 km , 23 days of competition, with Nissan France and the Dessoude team, with a new Nissan Terrano 3.0 V6 with the italian Agip Petroli livery, this time he obtained a 3rd place overall in the T1 Marathon 4x4 Petrol category, completing the podium for the Japanese brand Nissan with 3 cars in the top 3 places upon arrival in Cape Town, South Africa.

Paris-Granada-Dakar 1998

Gianni Lora Lamia with Massimo Giletti and Emilio Giletti

In the year 1998, the Italian entrepreneur and former Ferrari and Maserati driver in the 50s Emilio Giletti , decided to financially support the young driver and fellow citizen, thus starting a long collaboration, from the 1998 Dakar Rally up to the 2002 Dakar Rally with MMSP Mitsubishi Ralliart, a collaboration that allows him to have the adequate means to aim high in the race, starting exactly from the 20th edition of the Paris-Granada-Dakar which for the 20th anniversary returns with the classic start from Paris and entered in the race by Nissan Europe with the support of the French Team Dessoude, this time with a Nissan patrol GR Y60 4.2L entered in the T1 Marathon category, after suffering serious technical problems in Mauritania, he reaches the finish line in Dakar in 40th position overall , in one of the editions of the Dakar rally considered as one of the most difficult, with 60 percent of the cars retired along the route.

Gianni Lora Lamia Nissan Team Dessoude at the 1999 Granada–Dakar Rally

Granada-Dakar 1999

In the 21st edition of the Granada-Dakar Rally 1999, is entered by Nissan France and the Dessoude team with a Nissan Patrol GR Y60 4.2L T3 prototype where he achieved his best result, 14th overall in one of the most difficult and complicated editions in the history of the Dakar rally, characterized by an assault , perpetrated by armed rebels linked to Al Qaeda during the 12th stage of the rally between Néma and Tichit in Mauritania, where vehicles, money and petrol were stolen from several competitors.

Paris-Dakar-Cairo 2000

Gianni Lora Lamia Nissan Team Dessoude at the 2000 Paris–Dakar–Cairo Rally Podium Giza Pyramids Cairo Egypt

For the Paris-Dakar-Cairo 2000, Nissan Motorsport with the French Team Dessoude entered him again in the race this time with a new prototype of Nissan Patrol GR Y61 with complete carbon fiber body, only two examples of this car were lined up at the start by Nissan, the n.277 for Gianni Lora Lamia and the n.276 for the French driver Henri Pescarolo , 4 times winner of the 24 Hours of Le Mans. After only three stages he found himself 16th overall fighting for the top ten until halfway through the race where in the stage that reaches Niamey in Niger for the rest day, an electrical problem sent him far back in the general classification . After, the rest day the race is somewhat disturbed by terrorist threats and the organizers, anxious to ensure the safety of the competitors, following information received from Washington and from the French Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Defence, a huge airlift is taking place, three enormous Antonov-124 planes flew over the Sahara desert shuttling into Libya more than 1,500 people and vehicles involved in the Dakar-Cairo rally, which had been interrupted by a threatened guerrilla assault, the round-the-clock airlift, stretching across 1,250 miles from the Niger capital Niamey to Sebah in Libya, will require 18 round trips by Sunday at a cost of $4.7m. After reports of a planned rebel attack, the rally was suspended for five days, the most historic and decisive stages of the race in Niger were thus canceled and the race then resumes in Libya, via Cairo. With the resumption of the race in Libya and after a difficult comeback from the back of the general classification, he still managed to finish the race in 29th position overall and as the best Italian driverr at the finish line in Cairo in the 28th position overall.

Arras-Madrid-Dakar 2002

Gianni Lora Lamia Mitsubishi Ralliart at the2002 Arras–Madrid–Dakar Rallyat the 2002 Arras–Madrid–Dakar Rally

After 10 years of defending the Nissan factory brand in 2002 Switch from Nissan to Mitsubishi and is entered in the 24th edition of the Dakar Rally, the Arras-Madrid-Dakar 2002 by the Team Mitsubishi RALLIART France , the car chosen for this event the Mitsubishi Pajero/Montero MPR9 3.2 DI-D in the T2 Superproduction 4×4 Diesel category, the really first High Power Turbo Diesel car brought to the Dakar Rally by the official manufacturers, teammate of the French downhill world champion Luc Alphand and later winner of the 2006 Dakar Rally, with whom he fights throughout the race, also obtaining a 4th place overall in the Madrid-Rabat stage and taking the 16th place overall at the finish line in Dakar, contributing to the success and absolute dominance of the Japanese manufacturer with 11 cars classified in the top 20 overall positions.

Dakar 2003

In 2003, for the Dakar 2003 (Marseille-Valencia-Sharm El Sheik), he switched again to Nissan, this time he was entered in the race by the Nissan Promotech Rally Raid team with a Nissan Patrol GRY61 4.5L T3, halfway through the race, and was forced to retire due to an engine failure on the stage that reached the oasis of Siwa in Egypt.

Best Dakar Rally Overall Results

• 1992 Paris–Sirte-Cape Town 3rd Overall T1 Marathon 4x4 Class

• 1999 Granada-Dakar 14th Overall and 2nd T3 Prototype 4x4 Petrol Engines Class

• 2002 Arras Madrid-Dakar 16th Overall and 4th Superproduction 4x4 Diesel

Television

He cooperates with the Sports TV network, Eurosport and Fox Sport like technical consulting and commentator for the live about the Paris-Dakar Rally and the other races of the Fia WorldCup for Cross Country Rally, in the TV studios.

External links

• Official website