Date of birth: February 17, 1972Place of birth: Folgeroles, BarcelonaPlace of residence: Folgeroles, Barcelona1991: Runner-Up Spanish 125cc Junior Enduro Championship1992: 5th European 125 cc Senior Enduro Championship1993: 4th Spanish Senior Enduro Championship Bronze medal at the ISDE1994: European Senior Enduro CHAMPION Gold medal at the ISDE 4th Spanish Senior Enduro Championship1995: 2nd Spanish 4T Enduro Championship Bronze medal at the ISDE1996: 3rd Spanish 4T Enduro Championship 2nd overall 4T Enduro World Championship1997: Spanish Enduro CHAMPION Spanish Raid CHAMPION 1st participation in the Rally Dakar-Dakar (2 stage victories)1998: Participation in the Paris-Granada-Dakar (1st qualified half of the rally) 1999: Gold medal ISDE 2nd Egypt Raid 2nd Dubai Rally Winner Baja España Aragón and Baja Italia2000: Winner of 4 stages at the Dakar Bronze medal at the ISDE2001: Winner of 3 stages at the Dakar Bronze medal at the ISDE 2nd Baja España Aragón2002: Winner of 1 stage at the Dakar Winner of the Rally Tunisia (KTM 950 Rally) Winner Baja España Aragón2003: Winner of 1 stage at the Dakar 2nd Baja España Aragón 3rd FIM Cross-Country Rallies Cup 3rd Rally Tunisia 3rd Rally Morocco Winner of the Rally of Egypt Winner of the Rally Sardinia2004: Winner of the Dakar 2nd Rally Sardinia2005: 6th overall in the Dakar (Mitsubishi Montero Evolution) 4th overall in the Rally Patagonia-Atacama 4th overall in the Morocco Rally 1st overall in the Baja España Aragón2006: 3rd overall in the Lisbon Dakar Rally (Mitsubishi Montero Evolution) The passion for competition and an almost indestructible will mark the character of a singular rider. Joan Roma, Nani for his friends, was born in Vic on February 17, 1972 and after a short visit on soccer grounds, where an impressive goalkeeper was lost, he discovered his love for motorbikes. He entered his first race forging a friend’s license, a very common sin among great champions. He won that race and since then he has recorded impressive results, although there was something missing on that list: the jewel of the crown, winning the Dakar, something he finally managed to do in 2004. Roma has taken a place in the heart of many fans. He took over from Jordi Arcarons and the Dakar wouldn’t be the same without him. With the passage of years, dash gives way to experience and after participating in seven editions of the Dakar in the motorbike class and one in the car class in 2005, Roma and will be facing the challenge anew at the wheel of a Mitsubishi. Joan Roma is married and has two daughters. He achieved his first success in competition at the Spanish 125cc Junior Enduro Championship in 1991. His aggressiveness and physical condition didn’t go unnoticed. From the very start, he began to gather honour positions at Enduro trophies and at his participations in the Six Days. From the first medal he got in 1993 until the first title, the European Senior championship, Roma began establishing himself as one of the most outstanding riders in the class and with the African competitions becoming more and more popular, it was clear that he soon would reach the raids. It finally happened in 1996. He took part in his first Dakar, and despite not knowing anything about such a peculiar race, he clinched two stage victories, a real deed considering the level of his fellow riders. His way to become known at the African raids was certainly spectacular, after achieving brilliant results at Enduro national and world championships. Fate was decided and from that moment on, Roma did not stop participating in high-level Enduro races, although African raids marked his sports career. He repeated his excellent performance in 1998, leading the race halfway the rally, though he didn’t manage to finish. However he did not stop gathering extraordinary results such as a gold medal at the Six Days Enduro or second positions at the Egypt and Dubai Raids, and victories at the Baja de España and Italy. 2000 was the year of his international recognition. He finished the Dakar in seventeenth position, far behind the lead but he did it as a true moral winner, a fact that was publicly recognised by one of his biggest admirers, Hubert Auriol, Clerk of the course. Nani had won four stages of the race and he was leading it alone, having the victory in his hands. However the engine of his bike broke down, two days before the end of the race, after having crossed the whole African continent. It was a cruel deception and that victory could have certainly meant a total change in his sports career. From that moment on, Joan Roma clearly focussed his career on the most important races of the raid season, the most selected races of the Enduro championship and obviously the Dakar that had turned into the biggest objective of his sports career. It gave him trouble, again and again, but he had already proven that he was one of the most outstanding riders of the international off-road scene. He had fairly taken over from Arcarons and his aggressive style was joined by an overwhelming personality, not quite usual for a rider. Roma had become a dear rider, always accessible and ready to share his experience with fellow riders, such as Isidre Esteve and young Marc Coma, who with the time would become inseparable mates in the fight for the first great victory in Africa. A victory that had truly resisted itself since the big deception in 2000, when Nani had to spend a whole night in the desert waiting for the assistance truck. His aim was to reach Dakar no matter how, and it wasn’t possible; neither in 2001, 2002 nor in 2003. Several crashes and accidents hindered Joan from achieving his great aim, sporting misfortunes that due to television have been experienced almost live by the whole world, giving his sports career an almost epic dimension. His fight against the desert has been suffered by several thousands of fans. However, the fact of not having been able to win the Dakar did not represent a spot on a really brilliant sports career: victories at the Rally Tunisia 2002 and the Baja Aragón, together with sporadic participations in some of the most outstanding races of the Spanish Enduro Championship. In 2003 he almost clinched the victory as well. He was fighting against Fabrizio Meoni and a crash, fracture included, took him to hospital. Nothing serious but he was out of the race. From then on, Nani prepared himself thoroughly to recover and it is only fair to acknowledge that after that the successful results came one after the other: runner-up at the Baja Aragón, third place at the FIM Cross-Country Rallys Cup, third place at the Rally Tunisia, third place at the Morocco Rally and victories in Sardinia and Egypt. With this record and these credentials, Joan Roma was one of the great and unquestionable favourites to clinch the victory of the 26th edition of the Dakar. He had prepared himself more intensively than ever and he arrived in France in a perfect shape. He also had a bike he knew perfectly well and he had two extraordinary team-mates, Esteve and Coma. He had enough guarantees, but the most complicated part was yet to come: the race as such and overcoming the bad luck that had followed him so many times. And he did it. On January 18, 2004 and after an excellent team work, Nani reached Dakar as the winner. He had taken the lead from the eighth day and had nothing but consolidated it since then. This victory marked a milestone in the history of Spanish motorcycling because it was the first win of a Spanish rider in the 26 years history of the legendary race. The 2004 season had started very well for Joan Roma, but after his victory at the Dakar he injured his right knee during a training session and couldn’t take part in the first round of the Raid World Championship staged in Tunisia. He carefully took the start of the Morocco raid but had to retire in the second stage due to the reappearance of his injury. His foot hit a stone making his knee joint turn. As part of his recovery process and with an eye on preparing the Baja Aragón, where he suffered and impressive crash on the first day, Nani entered the Sardinia Rally and finished second. But these adverse results were not the reason why he took the decision to enter the Dakar in the car class. He had already taken the decision at the end of the 2004 edition, after taking the longed-for victory on a motorbike. But the initial idea had been set aside by the thought of taking more victories on two wheels. In June, however, he had the chance to test a high-level car and realised that he was able to be fully competitive. Nani Roma debuted in the Barcelona-Dakar as an official driver of Mitsubishi, making-up the official team with Stéphane Peterhansel, winner of the 2004 Dakar, Hiroshi Masuoka, winner of the 2003 Dakar, Luc Alphand and Andrea Mayer. He drove an official MMSP Mitsubishi Montero Evo, the best car of the speciality and winner of nine editions of the Dakar, the latest four consecutively. It was obvious that Roma was facing a big challenge, but the Repsol rider always stood up in the face of big challenges and tough times. Knowing that he was going back to Africa to learn how to race from a different perspective, he always said that this was going to be a training year, although his look couldn’t hide his will to do a good job, while looking at the podium out of the corner of his eye. Arriving in Dakar and contributing to the final victory of the team were the objectives, and he not only arrived, but also in sixth place, having contributes to the victory and second place of his team-mates Peterhansel and Alphand. Roma surprised those who trusted in him and those who didn’t. After a discreet start where he began getting used both to the car and to the race from the seat of his car, Nani made an impressive second part of the race. Fourth and fifth in the last stages, Roma proved to be a promise in his new class. Nani Roma continued adapting to the four wheels in 2005 and thanks to the support of Mitsubishi and Repsol, he took part in three rounds of the World Championship and the Baja España Aragón together with his team-mate Stéphane Peterhansel. Nani kept on learning, covering kilometres, thus achieving two fourth places in Argentina and Morocco, where he took the victory of the sixth and seventh special. And then came the longed-for victory on four wheels, and he did it within the matchless frame of the Baja Aragón. His hard work and patience were finally rewarded with a victory, and he finished ahead of his team-mate Peterhansel. He kept on working hard so the result would not be unique, but a food poisoning on the first day of the UAE Desert Challenge hindered him from being at a 100% in the last big test before the start of the Dakar 2006. Despite the seriousness of the illness, Roma took the start of all legs, although he was forced to retire in two of them, but he took the chance to keep on covering kilometres on such a valuable test surface as the one in Dubai. With a great progression during the 2005 season, Nani Roma faced his second participation in the Dakar at the wheel of a Mitsubishi Montero Evolution with the will to learn, to help his team-mates and to reach the finish on the podium in Lake Rose. It was an ambitious and difficult aim but the Repsol driver proved from the first moment, that he was more than capable and after the first stage on African ground, he was leading the rally for the first time. Without any serious mechanical mishaps, Roma suffered with navigation, as well as in the dunes and on the camel grass, but with a safe driving style, he moved up to fourth in the overall standings after the eighth stage, and consolidated the position day after day, ahead of Dakar winner Jutta Kleinschmidt. The advantage gathered in the overall standings allowed him to even stop to help his team mates when they were having trouble. Peterhansel’s accident allowed him to move up to third and to achieve his aim: stepping on the podium in Lake Rose. Roma thus becomes the first Spaniard to take the victory in the motorbike class and step on the podium in the car class at the Dakar Rally. After the podium place at the Dakar 2006, Roma finished second overall in the 2006 Patagonia-Atacama Rally behind team mate Alphand and second again in the 2006 Transiberico Rally after a thrilling rally-long fight with Giniel de Villiers. Following the tragic accident which claimed the life of his co-driver Henri Magne in Morocco, Nani returned to testing duties in Morocco over the summer months, before continuing the development of the new MPR13 version of the Pajero* Evolution in readiness for the 2007 Dakar Rally.
