On an early Wednesday morning, „General Financing team Pitlane“crew left to the 41^stDakar desert rally marathon. Before his flight to Amsterdam, the team leader Benediktas Vanagas said he was happy about the team’s accomplishments and the processes occurring inside the team over the last years.

Coming from Vilnius, Lithuania, he participated in his first Dakar rally seven years ago. A Latvian ATV “OsCar”, bags of equipment that might be needed and clearly expressed ambitions – such was setting back then. Now everything looks differently: “We have come a long road during seven years and we understood what type of challenge Dakar really is. We chose a pace, which was too fast for a marathon and that was our main mistake, which lead to other problems,” B.Vanagas admitted.

An important lesson learned over the seven years was having the right competencies within the team. “If we don’t count the price of the race car, the team budget this year is the smallest ever. But because of our strategic planning and consistent work, which happens throughout the whole year, we feel ready more than ever. We have a homegrown team of talented technicians, who consistently improve both on and off-track. We have an optimal amount of spare parts with a possibility to stock up when needed. We have a new and tested car, which will help us avoid technical problems. We were wise during our preparations and didn’t leave important tasks for the last minute. In short, the team was improved on all fronts and after a full year of preparations we feel ready for the two-week exam in Dakar,” explained the seasoned driver.

Together with „General Financing team Pitlane“ team leader B.Vanagas, 11 other people left to Lima, the capital of Peru: co-driver from Poland Sebastian Rozwadowski, three technicians, one person responsible for the bivouac infrastructure, and a team of 6 media professionals to report on the team progress. B. Vanagas will race with a new Toyota Gazoo Racing Hilux. “Dakar 2019” is the most challenging race in the world and this year there will be around fifty Lithuanians present at the competition

Source: General Financing team Pitlane press release