Ignacio Nicolás Casale Catraccia (born 27 April 1987 in

Santiago Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital and largest city of Chile as well as one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is the center of Chile's most densely populated region, the Santiago Metropolitan Region, whos ...

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

) is a

four-wheeler An all-terrain vehicle (ATV), also known as a light utility vehicle (LUV), a quad bike, or simply a quad, as defined by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI); is a vehicle that travels on low-pressure tires, with a seat that is strad ...

motorcycle A motorcycle (motorbike, bike, or trike (if three-wheeled)) is a two or three-wheeled motor vehicle steered by a handlebar. Motorcycle design varies greatly to suit a range of different purposes: long-distance travel, commuting, cruising ...

rider who won three times in the

quad bike An all-terrain vehicle (ATV), also known as a light utility vehicle (LUV), a quad bike, or simply a quad, as defined by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI); is a vehicle that travels on low-pressure tires, with a seat that is strad ...

category of Dakar Rally. He moved to the UTV category after his second victory on the Dakar Rally in 2018.

Biography

Ignacio is the son of Francisco Casale, an off-roader competing in the Jeep Fun Race in Chile in the 1980s and 1990s, and Mónica Catracchia. He shares the love of motorsport from his father and uncle, beginning to race in motocross competitions and race as the co-driver for his father in the Dakar Rally.

Career

Casale took part 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 ...

with his father, competing in the

Trucks A truck or lorry is a motor vehicle designed to transport cargo, carry specialized payloads, or perform other utilitarian work. Trucks vary greatly in size, power, and configuration, but the vast majority feature body-on-frame construction ...

category. They finished in 26th place, earning Casale a wild card place in the

2011 Dakar Rally The 2011 Dakar Rally was the 33rd running of the event. It was held in Argentina and Chile for the third 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 ...

, where he finished 40th in the motorcycle category. The following year he competed in the

category and finished in fourth place, the highest ranked Chilean rider. In the

2013 Dakar Rally The 2013 Dakar Rally was the 35th running of the event and the fifth successive year that the event was held in South America. The event started in Lima, Peru on 5 January and finished in Santiago, Chile on 19 January after fourteen stages of com ...

he won the seventh stage, becoming the first Chilean to win a stage in the Four-Wheeler category. He went to come second overall, behind Marcos Patronelli, the best result achieved by any Chilean in the history of 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 ...

. In 2014, after 14 days and 5,000 miles of riding through the Argentinean and

Andes The Andes, Andes Mountains or Andean Mountains (; ) are the longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range is long, wide (widest between 18°S – 20°S ...

, Bolivian salt plains and the

Atacama desert The Atacama Desert ( es, Desierto de Atacama) is a desert plateau in South America covering a 1,600 km (990 mi) strip of land on the Pacific coast, west of the Andes Mountains. The Atacama Desert is the driest nonpolar desert in th ...

, Casale won his first Dakar victory. Casale performed well throughout the

2014 Dakar Rally The 2014 Dakar Rally was the 36th running of the event and the sixth successive year that the event was held in South America. The event started in Rosario, Argentina on January 5 and finished in Valparaíso, Chile on January 18 after 13 stages of ...

, finishing first in seven of the 13 stages (stages 1, 6, 7, 8, 11, 12 and 13) and holding the overall number one spot from stage 7 through to the end. Casale later meet Chilean president

Sebastián Piñera Miguel Juan Sebastián Piñera Echenique OMCh (; born 1 December 1949) is a Chilean billionaire businessman and politician who served as president of Chile from 2010 to 2014 and again from 2018 to 2022. The son of a Christian Democratic polit ...

La Moneda Palace Palacio de La Moneda (, ''Palace of the Mint''), or simply La Moneda, is the seat of the President of the Republic of Chile. It also houses the offices of three cabinet ministers: Interior, General Secretariat of the Presidency and General Secreta ...

. He has told the media that he intends to defend his Quad title at the 2015 Dakar Rally. In the

2015 Dakar Rally The 2015 Dakar Rally was the 37th running of the event and the seventh successive year that the event was held in South America. The event started in Buenos Aires, Argentina on January 4, then ran through Argentina, Chile and Bolivia, before retur ...

he retired in stage 10 due to a mechanical problem after winning 3 stages and being the leader of the general classification of the first two stages and the eighth stage. He would then retire in the 6th stage of

2016 Dakar Rally The 2016 Dakar Rally was the 38th edition of the event and the eighth successive year that the event was held in South America. The event started in Buenos Aires, Argentina on January 2, then ran through Argentina and Bolivia. Sébastien Loeb and ...

due to an accident. The

2017 Dakar Rally The 2017 Dakar Rally was the 39th edition of the event and the ninth successive year that the event was held in South America. The event started in Asunción, Paraguay on January 2, then ran through Argentina and Bolivia, before returning to Bueno ...

saw a return to form with a runner-up finish and two stage wins in the quad category. He would then win his second Dakar title in the quad category of the

2018 Dakar Rally The 2018 Dakar Rally was the 40th edition of the event and the tenth successive year that the event was in South America. The event started in Lima, Peru on 6 January and ran through Argentina and Bolivia, finishing in Córdoba, Argentina on 20 J ...

. He began racing in the UTV category since his run at the 2018 Atacama Rally in Chile. In the

2019 Dakar Rally The 2019 Dakar Rally was the 41st edition of the event and the eleventh successive year that the event was held in South America. The event started in Lima, Peru on 6 January and finished there on 17 January after 10 stages of competition. Qatari ...

, he moved to the UTV category and raced with Americo Aliaga as his co-driver. He won the

2020 Dakar Rally The 2020 Dakar Rally was the 42nd edition of the event and the first edition held in Saudi Arabia. The event started in Jeddah on 5 January and finished in Al-Qiddiya on 17 January after 12 stages of the competition. This was also the first ev ...

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Casale, Ignacio Sportspeople from Santiago 1987 births Living people Chilean people of Italian descent Enduro riders Chilean motorcycle racers Off-road racing drivers Dakar Rally drivers Dakar Rally winning drivers Off-road motorcycle racers

Biography

Career

See also

References

External links