Jérôme Boussier, a longtime service vehicle driver and team member who did the Paris–Dakar Rally from the 1980s into the 2000s, died Sunday at the age of 71.

Christian Chiaravita, his friend and fellow Dakar Rally competitor, confirmed his passing on Tuesday. He wrote on his Facebook page that “another Dakarian has left to join our friends up there.”

Boussier first entered the Dakar in 1982 as the co-driver of a Land Rover piloted by Daniel Lorenzini.

He and his friend Jean Castera later designed bikes for BMW France, which landed them jobs as support vehicle drivers for the 1983 edition. The team went on to win for the second time with leader Hubert Auriol. While he and Georges Theillac were in a service truck so they weren’t racing, they had some misadventures that Boussier recalled to Dakar d’antan:

“Near Narbonne, Georges was caught off guard by a turn, and we ended up on our side at the bottom of an embankment in the courtyard of a maternity hospital around 3 AM.

“Put back on our wheels by another Pinz, we found an open garage where we patched up what we could to replace the windows. The vehicle had been loaded with a forklift on the N20 after Olivet and was very hard to drive. Once we reached the garrigue, a restaurant owner gave us packets of napkins that we layered under an old wooden door to protect the fuel tank, whose casing had taken a beating.

“At the time, the entries were prepared by BMW France and we were in the assistance category. This was the last thing we wanted to do since we had to go on the track after the trucks, which made it nearly impossible to find a stopped bike.

“The two 280GE Puchs broke their engine mounts, and Thierry de Montcorgé and Jean Castera suffered a wheel bearing failure, so we didn’t get much sleep. Jean managed to get on a plane and did the mechanics in the evening, and we did the rest in the early morning. We were disqualified at Tahoua Talcho for taking a shortcut that Thierry (Sabine, race founder) had hidden on the tarmac, taking down the numbers of those who cut it.

“The Pinzgauer was brand new, with two carburetors and a camshaft. Its maximum speed was 100 km/h in the Ténéré, but it wasn’t as good as a Land Rover for this kind of work.”

Boussier’s issues with the Pinzgauer seemed to stick with the team, who let him drive a Puch 280GE in the 1984 race. Castera, the head mechanic for BMW, sat beside him in the car. Although still in a service role, they finished 36th overall among all cars.

He joined Team Ligier Cagiva for 1985, driving a Land Rover to a 16th with Pierre Faucher by his side. Boussier continued to work with the team through the 1980s. In 1987, the pair finished 14th. Boussier even scored a stage win at one point.

Eventually, Boussier joined Bruno Saby’s Saby Sport Systems. At the turn of the millennium, he helped out with Saby’s new Ford Protruck program.

According to funeral service Roc Eclerc, Boussier’s remains will be cremated on January 6.

Featured image credit: Dakar d’antan