Frenchman Hubert Auriol was born in Addis Ababa in 1952. He was to become a legend of the Paris-Dakar rally.
Auriol began competing in 1973, racing in motorcross and enduro. In 1979 he took part in the inaugural Paris-Dakar rally and won his first stage in 1980.
In the 1981 race he took the overall win on a BMW R80G/S, repeating the success again in 1983 and coming second in 1984.
Now riding a Cagiva, the man they called “L’Africain” was leading the race in 1987 when he arrived at the bivouac in agony on the penultimate day, having broken both ankles.
Having won twice on two wheels, Auriol switched to four in 1988. Initially racing buggies, then a Lada, by 1992 he’d signed with the factory Mitsubushi team. That year the race was an epic 7,722 mile trek from Rouen in France to Cape Town in South Africa.
Hubert raced to victory, becoming the first person to win with both bikes and cars and securing his legacy as one of the all-time greats. Only two other people have achieved wins in both classes since (Stéphane Peterhansel and Nani Roma).
A veteran of the Dakar by the time his racing career ended, Auriol became Race Director from 1994 to 2004.
Already suffering from cardiovascular disease, Hubert Auriol contracted COVID-19 and died of a cardiac arrest in 2021.
