Anyone who thinks that the Dakar Rally is only about speed, roaring engines and winners is only seeing part of the story. Behind the scenes, in the bivouac between dust, oil and tired faces, lifelong friendships are formed. The mechanics Corné van Drunen from Udenhout and the Pole Darek Rodewald are living proof of this: “We miss each other.”
The hug is warm and firm when Corné and Darek meet in Saudi Arabia. They worked together as mechanics for De Rooy’s Dakar team in Son for eighteen years. Until Darek went back to Poland last year.
What started as a working relationship grew into something much bigger. They became friends for life. “After a few years you know everything about each other,” says Corné. “Not only how someone tinkers, but also how someone thinks. And feels.”
Darek came to Brabant from Poland and stayed there for almost two decades. He became part of the team and life. “I remained a Pole,” he says laughing, “but I became a Brabant Pole.” And his colleague Corné became a friend to him. Different in origin, but completely grown together.
“You miss each other especially as people.”
That friendship became increasingly closer through the Dakar Rally. You live at each other’s lips for weeks, working late into the night and solving problems that no one at home sees. If a truck breaks down hundreds of kilometers from civilization, you have to be able to rely on each other. “Sometimes just a look was enough,” says Corné. “Then you knew: we will fix this together.”
In the bivouac they walk together around the racing truck of the new Polish Red White team that Darek is helping to set up. Technical information is exchanged. As if they are colleagues again, because they already understand each other with half a word. “It immediately feels good,” says Corné. “As if nothing has changed.” Darek adds: “You miss each other. Not only at work, but especially as people.”
Because both mechanics not only shared work, but also life. Beautiful moments, successes, but also sadness. “Then you are there for each other,” Corné explains. “Not because it has to be done, but because it is self-evident.”
Still, Darek decided to return to Poland. He now has his own business and is part of the Polish Dakar team Red White. A new adventure, a new place. Yet he misses Brabant, such as the humor after a long working day and even the sausage rolls and syrup waffles. But most of all the camaraderie. “You can get things anywhere,” he says, “but not people.”
“You take friendship with you wherever you go.”
What they never actually say out loud in Brabant, they do in Saudi Arabia: Corné and Darek miss each other. “You’ve been working together every day for eighteen years and suddenly that’s gone,” Darek continues. “You feel that. Sometimes I think: he would understand this immediately. That’s what I miss the most.”
But the friendship will always remain. Whether they tinker next to each other in Son, meet each other briefly in the desert of Saudi Arabia or with an occasional phone call. “You always take that friendship with you,” concludes the Brabant Pole. “Wherever you are.” And that is perhaps the best story of the Dakar Rally.
Omroep Brabant is also closely following the Brabant participants in this Dakar Rally. Until January 18, there is Da Karretje every day with the experiences of reporters Nynke Cuperus, Ronald Sträter and Leon Voskamp on the website, TV and via YouTube.
