He worked installing irrigation systems for gardens, at 22 he created his company and at 43 he was in the top ten of the Dakar

Mendoza’s legion of riders shone at the Dakar 2023: Francisco Moreno, a young rider from Tupungato, took second place in the quads. And among the top ten cars were Juan Cruz Yacopini (with the Toyota Hilux, in 7th place) and Sebastian Halpern (with the Mini of the X-Raid team, in 9th place).

Of three, the only one who competed as an amateur because he doesn’t live from sport but from his work in two agricultural irrigation companies, he is Sebastián Halpern.

This 43-year-old businessman and athlete has more than 20 years of technical irrigation experience and is an expert in water care. The Dakar Rally has been his passion in recent years: he finished second in the Quad category in 2011, in 2018 he was in 8th place in the car category and in the recent edition of 2023, he also finished in the Top Ten, with the 9th place.

The man from Mendoza was racing with a Mini T1+, which uses biodiesel developed with waste and emits 80% less carbon dioxide.

how he experienced it

“This year the focus was inside that Top Ten, preparing for a Top five in 2024 and maybe dreaming of a podium finish,” Halpern said, during the extreme competition that took place in Saudi Arabia. But, he admitted, “we wanted more and could have stayed later.”

Together with his navigator Ronnie Graue, the man from Mendoza reached 9th place in the overall competition. “It was a terrible end. With 5 kilometers to go, smoke got into it and we thought it couldn’t be. But we’re there,” Halpern told Clarin on his return trip to Mendoza.

And he recalled that the most critical moments of the competition were the second and tenth days. “Day 2 we hit a stone hidden in the sand and broke the front differential with 250 kilometers to go. And 20km later, our hydraulic steering broke and we had to drive what was left (230km) without steering.” They finished in 46th place.

The days that followed succeeded in advancing the positions. “You must never give up, you must never stop dreaming and you must always fight for your dreams,” Halpern repeated like a mantra.

And he revealed what he was talking about with his partner: “With Ronni we put a lot of thought into it and we said to each other: come on, come on, we can. It was a very mental phase, we would have waited for the assistance truck, but since it would take a lot time, we decided to continue”.

He recalled that the other very difficult day was the tenth: “it was very hot, a very physical day, and I needed a lot of protein supplements. I drank all the water, I thought I was going to die.”

The winner in his category was Nasser Al-Attiyah (Toyota), who claimed his historic fifth Dakar Rally title. The Qatari had already won in 2011, 2015, 2019 and 2022.

For Sebastián, CEO of the technical irrigation companies Halpern and Masteragua, it was a difficult Dakar for several reasons: “Due to the insecurity and the attacks of the last edition, this time the route moved away from the cities, with fields full deserted and somehow returning to the origins of the Dakar, more isolated and without the comfort of hotels and, on the other hand, difficult because we had 14 stages plus the prologue.

Only on the 9th they rested and the first eight were stages of over 600-700 kilometers with 450-500 kilometers of special stages. “This forced us to spend a lot of time in the car, high speed and very focused. It took a lot of stamina and a lot of head to handle all that added pressure with 20 days away from family and loved ones,” Halpern said.

The man from Mendoza believes it racing with accumulated quad experience was a plus: “In adversity and in difficult conditions it’s where we performed best because the quad made us a bit tougher. It was a Dakar with lots of sailing and luckily I had my friend and navigator Ronnie Graue with me who is an excellent navigation specialist.”

Mendoza’s car in this edition is a Mini 4×4 with large wheels, in the T1+ category, bodywork 2.30 m wide, BMW 6-cylinder engine. “It’s a car that’s only been in development for a few months, and the big news is that it runs on waste-based biodiesel, which emits 80 percent less carbon dioxide,” says Halpern.

The Dakar Rally covers thousands of kilometers over a period of 10 to 15 days (as opposed to 2-3 day off-road rallies) and more than 200 riders from around the world participate in five categories.

In addition to the professionals, who are dedicated only to training for the races, amateur runners such as the Mendoza businessman sign up and rank every year.

The races require navigation, which is done through a roadbook provided by the organizers and distributed at the start of each stage. Therefore, the route is kept secret until the roadbook is delivered to the team.

The starting order of the races is established on the basis of the time completed in the timed section of the previous day and any sporting penalties (excessive speed on connections, missed waypoints). In the event of a tie, the order of the race numbers will apply.

his life story

Sebastián started working at the age of 19 when he graduated from the Liceo Agrícola Technical School, which depends on the National University of Cuyo. It was an Israeli-origin company that installed sprinklers for gardens and farms.

The crisis of 2001 arrives and a year later their contractual relationship ends. He was rewarded and decided to start his own business related to what he had learned. “I started from scratch providing services to farms and producers who didn’t have them because many companies went bankrupt or left the country,” he recalls.

He created his own irrigation company Halpern y Masteragua, which celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2022. And it has managed to extend to San Juan, La Rioja; Río Negro, incorporating new technologies and associated with foreign companies in the field of mechanized irrigation. His factory distributes inputs for agriculture and water supply throughout the country.

At the same time as his work as a businessman he started training and racing for the Dakar. He raced in 2010, 2011 and 2015 on ATVs. He finished second in 2011, his best result yet. On that occasion Alejandro Patronelli, another Argentine, came out first.

In 2018 and 2019 he competed in cars. He entered the Top Ten in 2018, with eighth place. The subsequent ones were not held in South America and it was more difficult to continue due to the logistics of the trip and the costs that a competition of this level requires.

In 2022 he still races with the Mini team but in Saudi Arabia. “When you talk to foreign pilots and co-pilots, they all say there are no routes in Latin America,” she says nostalgically for having experienced the competition close to home.

Halpern explains that he switched from quads to cars because training on quads is very hard and you need to train all year round: “You have to dedicate your whole life to it, from early morning in the gym to get in and it is almost impossible to have a social life and a family,” he warns.

Halpern is married to Cecilia Lampa and together they had Clarita, 7 years old. His family is a fundamental pillar of his career. “My wife and daughter send me videos during the competition, to give me strength. Nothing is more important than family support,” he said.

I guess work commitments take away your time to train, will you continue running?

I have many work commitments but I have an orderly schedule, I train in the morning, however maybe this year I stopped racing in Argentina, but I will participate in the cross country world championship because I’m already busy with this.

What value do you place on the Dakar Rally?

It’s a personal challenge, an adventure, every year I try to improve. A race against myself. The riders who win are professionals and in my case, an amateur, I aspire to get into the Top Five, which is what I could achieve.

Is age a determining factor to be placed on that podium?

I never stop working out, but age is a big factor as it’s getting harder and harder to get up early to work out, lift more pounds at the gym, and stay strong in spirit, body, and soul. But age helps to be more mature, more intelligent, to have more patience and, in races like the Dakar, these are beneficial qualities.

As an entrepreneur, how do you see the productive development of the country?

Argentina, and Mendoza in particular, has incredible potential. We need politicians committed to this development and with a plan for the next 50 years, a plan that is state policy and is implemented regardless of the political color of the day. Mines, Agriculture, Tourism, Industry are the foundations for the future of our country.