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Produced by Simon Lee
Price (DVD): $24.95 AUD Streaming: $6.95 AUD
Tackling the Dakar Rally one day at a time in no easy feat, and Dream Racer is the best and most current production to prove it. Australian Producer, Simon Lee, takes a chance to document Christophe Barriere-Varju’s effort to finish the 2014 Dakar and relive his childhood motocross dreams.
The journey starts in Australia, where Christophe works as a business consultant. Lots of flashback images of Christophe in his younger, more fit, racing days draw an immediately relevant parallel to what many of us experience as we get older. Despite the need for last minute physical conditioning, the dream lives on but not without great stress and many sacrifices.
Christophe’s challenges continue to mount in the first 30 minutes. Amidst his regular nine to five job and training, he has only two months to raise the $120K to fund his race. He goes from door to door soliciting sponsorship from just about anyone he encounters. Both Simon and Christophe face stress and financial difficulties as Simon quits his job at an advertising agency to produce the film mostly on borrowed money. There’s a real question as to whether either of them will make it to Dakar but hard work and perseverance pay off by the skin of their teeth.
As if the initial challenges weren’t enough, the Dakar itself is a monster to overcome as any rider, but as a privateer, the difficulty is almost unimaginable. Without enough money to pay for technical support, Christophe has to do everything himself from racing to wrenching and managing the many levels of administrative chores both before and during the event. Sleep? Forget sleep!
Although the first 30 minutes of stage setting could have been shortened to get right to the meat , Dream Racer’s biggest take away is proof that achieving your dream is reachable for “ordinary” people as long as the necessary sacrifices are willing to be made. Kudos to both Christophe and Simon for taking on this mountain of a challenge and living to share the tale with the rest of us!
