Motorcycle stars get the Iveco experience
At Thursday afternoon's pre-event press call, Vila took riders around the Aragon track's AutoCross Circuit in his 900hp Petronas De Rooy Iveco Trakker race truck.
The passengers for the wild off-road ride included Monster Yamaha Tech 3's Cal Crutchlow, Interwetten-Paddock's Tom Luthi, Blusens Avintia's Maverick Viñales, RW Racing GP's Luis Salom and Team Italia FMI's Romano Fenati.
A couple of laps a piece proved enough as the truck was sliding around corners and tackling the track with ease - with Fenati being the only one who was treated to the truck briefly going up on two wheels on its side.
Vila is a veteran of ten starts in the fortnight-long Dakar rally, finishing the gruelling event nine times, with a best finish of sixth. His Iveco Trakker, part of the five vehicle-strong Dutch De Rooy team, features a 13-litre diesel engine putting out 900hp to propel the ten tonne machine.
While the race-prepped Iveco has a top speed of 205km/h, Vila explained this is limited to 150km/h during the rally. The team's owner, Gerard de Rooy, took victory in last year's Dakar, with other Dutch teammate Hans Stacey coming in second.
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Images: motogp.com