Green Power Race, sponsored by Lantania, takes the podium as Finisher at Dakar 2024

• Led  by driver Fran Gómez Pallas, it competed in the Mission 1000 category

Madrid, 25 January 2024. The Green Power Race Team, sponsored by Lantania, has become the first Spanish team to compete in the Dakar Rally with an electric motorbike. Led by Galician driver Fran Gómez Pallas, the team participated in the world’s most demanding motor racing competition in the Mission 1000 category, a large-scale test bench aimed at gathering maximum information on new carbon-neutral technologies.

Gómez Pallas raced in Saudi Arabia on a fully handcrafted electric motorbike created from a BAT Power Racing model. The Galician rider managed to fight for the lead and challenge factory bikes during the 12 stages of the race. His excellent performance was cut short on the penultimate day after a severe fall, 12 km from the finish line, which forced him to abandon the rally. Despite this, the organisers considered him worthy of a place on the podium, as Finisher. “I am really pleased with my rally performance. It has been very hard, but we have learnt and clarified a lot of questions that will help us take on new challenges. We proved to be strong against the factory-backed teams and that will motivate us even more.”

This was the eighth Dakar Rally for Gómez Pallas, who has been racing motocross and dirt track for 20 years, competing in national and international competitions. He currently ranks as one of the 30 best private riders of the Dakar Series on the world circuit and one of the most outstanding Europeans and Spanish riders in competition.

Lantania shows its commitment to sustainable innovation by supporting the Green Power Race Team. The aim of the team led by Gómez Pallas is to demonstrate that an electric bike can complete the same route as the motorbike category, “that it can finish the same long and challenging stages of the Dakar,” says the Galician rider.

Mission 1000 category

As part of the Dakar Future programme, which aims to achieve 100% alternative energy in the Dakar by 2030, Mission 1000 offers hydrogen, 100% electric or hybrid-powered vehicles the chance to compete in the rally without having to tackle overly long or demanding stages. The participants in Mission 1000 undertake a journey of one hundred kilometres each day. In this edition, 10 vehicles participated in the project, including motorcycles, cars, and trucks.