Michel Périn (born 19 January 1957, in

Saint-Mihiel Saint-Mihiel () is a commune in the Meuse department in Grand Est in north-eastern France. Geography Saint-Mihiel lies on the banks of the river Meuse. History A Benedictine abbey was established here in 708 or 709 by Count Wulfoalde and his wif ...

) is a French rally navigator.

Biography

He started racing in 1977. In 1984 he turned professional as co-pilot of

François Chatriot François () is a French masculine given name and surname, equivalent to the English name Francis. People with the given name * Francis I of France, King of France (), known as "the Father and Restorer of Letters" * Francis II of France, Kin ...

, and finished second in the

French Rally Championship The FFSA French Rally Championship or Championnat de France des Rallyes is France's leading domestic motor rally competition. It's a championship that has been won three times by Didier Auriol, Guy Fréquelin, Patrick Bernadini and Philippe Bug ...

, championship that he would win in 1988, 1989 and 1990. He changed to

off-road Off-roading is the activity of driving or riding in a vehicle on unpaved surfaces such as sand, gravel, riverbeds, mud, snow, rocks, and other natural terrain. Types of off-roading range in intensity, from leisure drives with unmodified vehicl ...

rally racing in 1992, to the side of

Pierre Lartigue Pierre Lartigue, (born 22 October 1948) is a former French rally racing who won three editions of Rally Dakar (cars). He won the FIA World Cup for Cross-Country Rallies four times. Rally Dakar He won 21 stages in the African rally raid R ...

, winning the

Dakar Rally The Dakar Rally (or simply "The Dakar"; formerly known as the "Paris–Dakar Rally") is an annual rally raid organised by the Amaury Sport Organisation. Most events since the inception in 1978 were staged from Paris, France, to Dakar, Senegal, ...

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which Sinking of the MS Estonia, sank in ...

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is O. J. Simpson murder case, acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the 1994, year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The ...

and

1996 File:1996 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: A Centennial Olympic Park bombing, bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, set off by a radical Anti-abortion violence, anti-abortionist; The center fuel tank explodes on TWA Flight 8 ...

. He also achieved multiple victories and podium finishes in many of the most important offroad races, including

Rally of Tunisia The rally of Tunisia (''Rallye de Tunisie'') is a rally-raid which was disputed each year in Tunisia ) , image_map = Tunisia location (orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = Location of Tunisia in northern Afric ...

, Atlas Rally, Baja Italy,

Spanish Baja Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Cana ...

and Baja Portugal. From 1993 to 1996, he won the FIA Cross Country World Cup. In 1997 and 1998 he switched again to rally, participating in the French Rally Championship with the driver

Patrick Magaud Patrick may refer to: * Patrick (given name), list of people and fictional characters with this name * Patrick (surname), list of people with this name People * Saint Patrick (c. 385–c. 461), Christian saint *Gilla Pátraic (died 1084), Patrick ...

. He ended his career at the end of 1998, turning into team manager of Citroën Sport. Six years later, he returned in 2004, sharing cockpit with

Guerlain Chicherit Guerlain Chicherit (born 20 May 1978 in Paris) is a French rally and rallycross driver, and a professional skier who was four times world champion in freeriding (1999, 2002, 2006 and 2007). Biography He made his professional motorsport debut in ...

. In 2005, he signed for the

Volkswagen Motorsport The Volkswagen Motorsport was a works rally team of the German car manufacturer Volkswagen, who competed in the World Rally Championship (WRC) and Dakar Rally. The team started competing in WRC in 1978 and used different specs of Volkswagen Gol ...

Team. Being

Bruno Saby Bruno Saby (born 23 February 1949 in Grenoble) is a rally driver from France. In 1981, Saby became French Rally Champion in a Renault 5 Turbo. He drove for the works teams of Renault, Peugeot, Volkswagen and Lancia during his career in the Worl ...

's codriver, he won the FIA Cross Country World Cup for 5th time in his career, including victories on

Rally of Morocco The Rallye du Maroc (Morocco Rally) was a marathon rally, similar to the Safari Rally, but that should not be confused with the Rallye du Maroc rally raid introduced in 2000. History It was first run in 1934, and held intermittently until 1988. ...

and Rallye d'Orient, and a fifth place in the

. In 2007, riding with

Carlos Sainz Carlos Sainz may refer to: People * Carlos Sainz Sr. (born 1962), Spanish rally driver world champion, father of Jr. * Carlos Sainz Jr. (born 1994), Spanish Formula One driver, son of Sr. Other uses * '' Carlos Sainz: World Rally Championship'', 1 ...

, he won again the Cross Country World Cup, after winning the

Rally Transibérico Rally or rallye may refer to: Gatherings * Demonstration (political), a political rally, a political demonstration of support or protest, march, or parade * Pep rally, an event held at a United States school or college sporting event Sports ...

and finishing second in the Rally of Morocco and the

UAE Desert Challenge The United Arab Emirates (UAE; ar, اَلْإِمَارَات الْعَرَبِيَة الْمُتَحِدَة ), or simply the Emirates ( ar, الِْإمَارَات ), is a country in Western Asia (The Middle East). It is located at th ...

. They were 9th in the final classification of the

, after suffering a breakdown. After the 2007 killing of French tourists in Mauritania, the Dakar Rally effectively moved to Central Europe for 2008, which the pair won. In the

2009 Dakar Rally The 2009 Dakar Rally was the 31st running of the Dakar Rally. In addition to motorcycle, automobile, and truck categories, a separate quad (all-terrain vehicle) class was added for the first time. The race began on 3 January 2009, and took place a ...

, after leading the classification for several days, he and Sainz suffered an accident because of the lack of documentation in the

roadbook A roadbook is a diagrammatic book typically used by rally co-drivers and overland travelers to navigate across uncertain terrain. Usually, the roadbook consists of several pages of tulip-diagrams, GPS co-ordinates and written instructions to ass ...

. Périn broke his arm, and the team was forced to abandon the race. In 2009, he was contracted by BMW as co-driver of

Nani Roma Joan "Nani" Roma Cararach (born 17 February 1972) is a rally racing driver from Folgueroles, Barcelona, Spain. He won the Dakar Rally riding a motorcycle in 2004. Since then he has entered in the car category, taking the win in the 2014 edition ...

in a

BMW X3 The BMW X3 is a compact luxury crossover SUV manufactured by BMW since 2003, based on the BMW 3 Series platform. Now in its third generation, BMW markets the car as a ''Sports Activity Vehicle'', the company's proprietary descriptor for its X- ...

, winning the Baja Spain that year. In the

2010 Dakar Rally The 2010 Dakar Rally was the 32nd running of the event. It was held in South America for the second successive time, and ran from 1 to 16 January. The Amaury Sport Organisation and the governments of Argentina and Chile agreed to a return to South ...

, they accomplished a great start, winning the first stage, but after two accidents, they had to abandon in third stage. In 2015, Périn became co-driver of Finn rally raid driver

Mikko Hirvonen Mikko Hirvonen (born 31 July 1980) is a Finnish former rally driver, and a current Rally-Raid driver, who drove in the World Rally Championship. He placed third in the drivers' championship and helped Ford to the manufacturers' title in both 200 ...

for X-Raid. In 2018 he will again compete in the Dakar Rally as co-driver of Dutchman Bernhard ten Brinke with a Toyota Hi-Lux for Toyota Gazoo Racing South Africa.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Perin, Michel 1957 births Living people People from Saint-Mihiel Dakar Rally co-drivers French rally co-drivers Sportspeople from Meuse (department)