Speaker 1: Dakar Rally is one of the world's toughest motor races.
Speaker 1: Since the late seventies, the globe's best rally drivers have
Speaker 1: competed in the off road durance event from Paris to Dhaka,
Speaker 1: the capital of Senegal. The race takes place across ten
Speaker 1: thousand kilometers of rough terrain and the vehicles can range
Speaker 1: from motorcycles to trucks. But prior to two thousand and one,
Speaker 1: Dhaka had only seen male champions. The world of motorsport
Speaker 1: has long been dominated by men, but one woman named
Speaker 1: Yuta Kleinschmidt was determined to shake things up a bit. Hey,
Speaker 1: I'm Tony Armstrong and welcome to the Pool Roup, where
Speaker 1: we celebrate the winners, losers and the weird stuff between.
Speaker 1: Yuta Kleinschmidt wasn't always a racing driver, which is remarkable
Speaker 1: when you consider the fact that most people in motorsport
Speaker 1: start from a very early age. Yota just wasn't the
Speaker 1: go kart racing type, but growing up in Germany, she
Speaker 1: did have an inclination for extreme sports. Yuta studied physics
Speaker 1: at university, which led to a job with BMW where
Speaker 1: she worked as a development engineer. This is where her
Speaker 1: love of racing eventually emerged. She quit that job to
Speaker 1: start racing full time, and the motorsport world did not
Speaker 1: see her coming. Yota's first season of Dhaka was nineteen
Speaker 1: eighty eight, and she initially competed in the motorcycle class.
Speaker 1: That first year wasn't a great start, as she was
Speaker 1: forced to retire set out the next three editions before
Speaker 1: returning in nineteen ninety two. Then ninety four, Yuta placed
Speaker 1: twenty third and twenty second respectively, which was pretty good
Speaker 1: considering over one hundred bikes competing in those races. In
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety five, Yuta switched from racing motorbikes to cars,
Speaker 1: and this is where her career began to pick up speed.
Speaker 1: The next four consecutive seasons were patchy, including a retirement
Speaker 1: in ninety six, before recording her highest finished thus far
Speaker 1: fifth in nineteen ninety seven. She also became the first
Speaker 1: woman to win a stage of the prestigious race. Then,
Speaker 1: for the nineteen ninety nine Daka rally, Yuta and her
Speaker 1: co driver Tina Turna finished third. They became the first
Speaker 1: women to stand on the Dakar podium, putting the racing
Speaker 1: world on notice. Yuta and Tina returned to the track
Speaker 1: the following year, where they were less successful, finishing fifth.
Speaker 1: This was the end of their partnership. In two thousand
Speaker 1: and one, You're To teamed up with a new co driver,
Speaker 1: a fellow German named Andreas Schultz, driving a Mitzubishi Pajerro.
Speaker 1: The pair lined up for the start of the race
Speaker 1: on the first of January in Paris. They were one
Speaker 1: of one hundred and thirteen vehicles in the car category,
Speaker 1: and come the end of the race, less than half
Speaker 1: would remain. Across twenty grueling stages, the competitors sped through
Speaker 1: varied terrain, from the cobblestones of France to the deserts
Speaker 1: of the African continent. The main battle was between the
Speaker 1: Mitsubishi Pajero's and the Schlesser buggies. Mitsubishi had their rival
Speaker 1: out numbered on the grid six vehicles to three, but
Speaker 1: Jean Louis Schlesser was a two time winner of Dakka
Speaker 1: and the favorite to take the title in two thousand
Speaker 1: and one. Jean Louise had been building his own jumbuggy
Speaker 1: since the early nineties with great success, but he was
Speaker 1: about to get awake up, Yuta and Andrea's managed to
Speaker 1: overtake Schlesser in the final stages to stun the racing world.
Speaker 1: Yuta Kleinschmidt became the first woman to win the Dakar Rally,
Speaker 1: writing her name into the history books once more. Uta
Speaker 1: competed in Dakar for six more years, backing up a
Speaker 1: two thousand and one title by finishing second the next year.
Speaker 1: She featured in the event seventeen times, with six finishes
Speaker 1: in the top five and four podiums. Her engineering background
Speaker 1: saw the development of race winning vehicles in Dakar, and
Speaker 1: her two thousand and one triumph has inspired young girls
Speaker 1: and women everywhere who dare to dream. She remains the
Speaker 1: only German to win the Dakar in the car category
Speaker 1: and will forever be known as a motor racing legend.
Speaker 1: I hope you enjoyed this episode of The Pool Room
Speaker 1: and iHeart production. I'm Tony Armstrong and I'll speak to
Speaker 1: you soon. Catch U.