“The death is very sad, but it was not unexpected. I knew about it since July of last year, it was already reported unofficially. It’s sad, it’s been going for so many years, all the goals were related to that, it’s sad news”, – to the portal lrytas.lt after the news appeared, L. Kancius, who has been driving a four-wheeler in the Dakar Rally since 2021, spoke.
Speaking about the reasons behind the organizers’ decision, the racer revealed that the most important was the financial argument.
“There weren’t even any negotiations, there were only conversations, the argument was simple – to reduce the number of participants in the four-wheeled and motorcycle classes, it used to be around 170, and the goal is to make it around 100.
The easiest is to “cut off” the ATV class, because they do not have the support of factory teams, and after the ATVs, there are also motorcycles. Why is this done? We want to pay more attention to the class of cars and motobags, because they are much more profitable, the organizers don’t even hide it. They publicly declare that this is a business,” he added.
The Lithuanian, who won the first stage of the 2022 Dakar Rally, also spoke briefly about his future. L. Kancius did not hide the fact that he does not rule out the possibility of returning to Dakar even after four-wheelers are removed from the lists.
“I don’t want to rush, now is the time to rest after Dakar, I had injuries, I need to recover, I think that we will make one or another decisions in the future.
There were all kinds of offers – to help someone navigatemaybe drive another vehicle, all options are possible, but now it’s too early to talk about it, we need time to decide,” reasoned the Lithuanian.
The quad bike class debuted in the Dakar Rally back in 2009, when the competition was held in South America.
“Yes, this is discrimination, but this is a business, it must be profitable for the organizers. They do not rule out that the situation may change if the Dakar Rally moves to another location, but as long as it is in Saudi Arabia, nothing should change.
South America – yes, there is a huge tradition of four-wheelers, if the Dakar took place there, it would not be easy for the organizers to “cut” everything like that, – lrytas.lt L. Kancius spoke.
We remind you that he took fourth place overall in this year’s Dakar Rally.
