Lucas Cruz en la Real Casa de Correos de Madrid (2018)

Lucas Cruz Senra (born 26 December 1974 in

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

) is a Spanish

computer engineer Computer engineering (CoE or CpE) is a branch of electrical engineering and computer science that integrates several fields of computer science and electronic engineering required to develop computer hardware and computer software, software. C ...

, mostly known as a rally racing co-driver and experienced navigator.

Career

He started to race on 1994, when he race on the

Catalonia Rally Championship Catalonia (; ca, Catalunya ; Aranese, Aranese Occitan: ''Catalonha'' ; es, Cataluña ) is an Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Spain, designated as a ''nationalities and regions of Spain, nationality'' by its Statute o ...

. On 2001, he achieved his first victory in the Spanish Championship, together with the driver Txus Jaio on board a

Ford Focus WRC The Ford Focus RS WRC is a car built for the Ford World Rally Team by Ford Europe and M-Sport and based on the Ford Focus Climate 2-litre production hatchback, developed to compete in the World Rally Championship. The RS stands for ''Rallye Sport ...

, as part of the ''Carlos Sainz Junior Team''. After a few years racing on

tarmac Tarmac may refer to: Engineered surfaces * Tarmacadam, a mainly historical tar-based material for macadamising road surfaces, patented in 1902 * Asphalt concrete, a macadamising material using asphalt instead of tar which has largely superseded tar ...

and

gravel Gravel is a loose aggregation of rock fragments. Gravel occurs naturally throughout the world as a result of sedimentary and erosive geologic processes; it is also produced in large quantities commercially as crushed stone. Gravel is classifi ...

categories, he started to compete on

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 ...

races with the driver José Luis Monterde, finishing the 2001 Dakar Rally as the first classified rookies and amateurs, driving a Nissan Patrol GR. He tackled

2006 Dakar Rally The 2006 Dakar Rally, also known as the 2006 Paris-Dakar Rally, was the 28th running of the Dakar Rally event. The 2006 event ran from 31 December 2005 to 15 January 2006. It started from Lisbon, Portugal, and passed through Spain, Morocco, Mali, M ...

as a truck co-driver 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, partnering with driver Josep Pujol. On 2007 he signed for

Mitsubishi The is a group of autonomous Japanese multinational companies in a variety of industries. Founded by Yatarō Iwasaki in 1870, the Mitsubishi Group historically descended from the Mitsubishi zaibatsu, a unified company which existed from 1870 ...

, where he stayed for two years, along with

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 ...

as new teammate. They attended to

2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple Inc., Apple's first iPhone (1st generation), iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakis ...

and

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 ...

, achieving 10th place as the best result on final classification. They also finished 2nd on Rally Transibérico and

Baja Spain Baja or Bája may refer to: Places and jurisdictions In the Americas * Baja California Peninsula, in northwestern Mexico * Baja California state in the northern part of the above peninsula * Baja California Sur state in the southern part of t ...

competitions on 2007, and 2nd again on the 2008 Baja Spain. In May 2009, Cruz returned to Volkswagen team, this time to share the cockpit with former World Champion Carlos Sainz. The pairing achieved their first successes after winning the Rally dos Sertões and the

Silk Way Rally The Silk Way Rally ( rus, Шёлковый путь) is an annual rally raid type of off-road race. The first Silk Way Rally was raced in 2009 from Kazan, Russia to Ashgabat, Turkmenistan. From 2010 to 2013, the race has taken place in Russia. ...

. The team formed by Sainz-Cruz completed their most important achievement after winning 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 Sout ...

, ahead of another two Volkswagen cars, driven by

Nasser Al-Attiyah Nasser Salih Nasser Abdullah Al-Attiyah ( ar, ناصر صالح ناصر عبدالله العطية : nāṣir ṣāliḥ nāṣir ʿabdullāh al-ʿaṭṭīyah; born 21 December 1970 in Doha) is a Qatari rally driver and sport shooter. He wa ...

and Mark Miller, respectively. Cruz has gone onto win 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 ...

and

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 eve ...

alongside Carlos Sainz, driving for

Peugeot Peugeot (, , ) is a French brand of automobiles owned by Stellantis. The family business that preceded the current Peugeot companies was founded in 1810, with a steel foundry that soon started making hand tools and kitchen equipment, and then ...

and

Mini The Mini is a small, two-door, four-seat car, developed as ADO15, and produced by the British Motor Corporation (BMC) and its successors, from 1959 through 2000. Minus a brief hiatus, original Minis were built for four decades and sold during ...

respectively.

Dakar Rally results

Notes

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Cruz, Lucas 1974 births Living people Dakar Rally drivers Catalan rally drivers Off-road racing drivers Dakar Rally co-drivers