It was not only on stage or in front of the cameras that Claude Brasseur was talented.
The actor, who died on Tuesday at the age of 84, had tried several times on the sandy tracks of the Paris-Dakar in the 1980s, alongside the famous Belgian driver Jacky Ickx.
With success, the two men who won the event in January 1983 driving a Mercedes 280 GE in the colors of Texaco.
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This edition will be remembered since the founder Thierry Sabine, tragically died in 1986 with Daniel Balavoine in a helicopter crash, decides that year to take the caravan through the terrible Ténéré desert, a particularly trying passage for the participants.
In total, the father of Sophie Marceau, alias Vic, in "La Boum" in 1980, participated five times in the legendary rally-raid, from 1981 to 1985. Passionate about sport, he also took part in races with the Star Racing Team, driving a Simca 1000 Rally.
"He was not going there to make people talk about him, but to win"
It all started with a joke started by a friend during a winter sports vacation.
“We were with a bunch of friends, including Jacky Ickx, told Claude Brasseur in 2017, at the microphone of Europe 1. A member of the band proposed to stop skiing early to see a sports program on TV .
The program in question concerns precisely the trans-African race.
"One of the friends said from the back of the room:
I know two of them, if they weren't cracks, this is what they would do!"
The actor remembered.
The next day, the joke is no longer really one when Ickx actually asks Claude Brasseur to accompany him on the slopes.
“I rubbed shoulders with him from my first Dakar in 1983, recalls Etienne Smulevici, record holder for starts in the event (35).
They won that year, then it was more difficult with their Porsches afterwards, they had mechanical problems.
In 1984, their entire electrical harness had burnt down from the first stage in Algeria.
Claude Brasseur was very introverted, extremely focused.
He didn't go there to make people talk about him, he didn't need to, but to win.
He was with one of the best pilots in the world, and was often cited as an example to him as a navigator at the time.
"
As a reference to his pronounced taste for motorsports, Claude Brasseur wears a red cap bearing the effigy of Ferrari in the comedy “Camping” (2006), where he plays the role of camper Jacky Pic.
Before embarking on the assault on the Paris-Dakar, the actor had also gathered valuable advice from Jean Todt, a former rally co-driver who became director of the Italian team in 1993.