Francesco Dracone is used to turning laps around a circuit, but will now see if he can go through a rally route. This week’s Rallye du Maroc marks his first time doing a rally raid, where he is driving a Toyota Hilux from Overdrive Racing.

Dracone previously competed in open-wheelers during the early 2010s, particularly in IndyCar and Auto GP. He raced part time in the former in 2010 and 2015 with a stint in the latter sandwiched between: after placing 14th in the 2014 Auto GP standings, the Italian did the first four races of the 2015 IndyCar slate. His last action was at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course.

Eventually, Dracone made the switch to sports cars in the European Le Mans Series. Racing an Oreca LMP2, he and BHK Motorsport teammate Sergio Campana finished as high as 24th in points in 2019.

When not racing, he dabbled in enduro and motocross. This increased when his pavement days were behind him before culminating in him looking to the rally world. If things work out, he’s open to pursuing the Dakar Rally.

“I had a break for two years and now I decided to get back into motorsport off-road in the desert with a co-driver. It’s quite a unique experience,” Dracone told Cross-Country Rally News after private testing on Saturday. “The car looks very big. It’s massive, it’s way high above the surface, so it was very uncomfortable for the first time, but then I enjoyed it very much. Hopefully the Rallye du Maroc will be a good experience and we are going to learn a lot towards new challenges such as the Dakar.”

Dracone and his navigator Alessandro Verna finished Sunday’s Prologue in 37th for Ultimate cars and 71st overall.

“Not as good as I thought, but not bad either,” he described. “The Prologue was quite intense because the other good drivers said it has been quite tricky in terms of surface, going up and down. It looked a little bit like an enduro race, which is something that I know quite well. The pace wasn’t there, but we are confident for tomorrow that it is going to come somehow. Longer stage, more navigation and more time in the car will give us more confidence for sure.”

Featured image credit: Overdrive Racing