User:Phx-Racing/sandbox/Gianni Lora Lamia

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

Racing Career
He participated in the Paris-Dakar from 1989 to 2007,  one of the very few Italian drivers with more participations in the Paris-Dakar 16 in total, 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 Rally Raid Cars that wins this great race, Moreover cooperates with the Sports TV network, Eurosport TV and Fox Sport TV like technical consulting and commentator for the live commentaries about the Paris-Dakar Rally and the other races of the Fia WorldCup for Cross Country Rally, in the TV studios.

With more than 15 participations in the Dakar Rally, is part of the priority list of drivers with more than 10 participation in the Paris-Dakar, called created by the organization of the race A.S.O. Amaury Sport Organisation

Range Rover No Stop Record 1989
Before the Paris-Dakar Gianni Lora Lamia, in 1989 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 fearsome Sahara desert and back to the Island of Elba, with a strictly standard Range Rover TDI and with the engine hood sealed (deliberately by Land Rover) to to prevent technical interventions on the car, the commissioners and journalists had the task of checking the car at each staging point and at the halfway point in Niamey.



The crews managed to cover the distance of the route with the time of 6 days and 6 hours including the time used for the 4 ferries crossed, 2 on the outward journey Elba-Livorno and Marseille-Algiers and 2 on the return Algiers-Marseille and Livorno -Elba.

Range Rover and Land Rover Italy the following year together with the Prima Ridotta 4x4 magazine, gave away the sum of 10 million lire for those who managed to beat time, after various attempts, including some with some serious accident, no other crew to date has ever managed to beat that time.

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, and for the following edition of the 13th Paris-Tripoli-Dakar 1991, 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 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.

in 1992 he was entered again 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, again 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. in south africa.

In 1998, the Italian entrepreneur and former Ferrari and Maserati driver Emilio Giletti, father of the Italian television presenter Massimo Giletti, decided to financially support the young driver and fellow citizen, thus starting a long collaboration, from the 1998 Dakar Rally with Nissan Motorsport up to the 2002 Dakar Rally with MMSP Mitsubishi Ralliart, in the 21st edition of the Granada-Dakar Rally 1999, he achieved his best result, 14th overall with the historic Nissan France Team Dessoude, in one of the most difficult and complicated editions in the history of the Dakar rally, thus becoming the last Italian driver with the best overall position in the car category, result still today unbeaten.

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