Nicolás Fuchs has always loved cars and high speed. It is the excluding passion in his life. Proof of this is his swift ascent, without brakes or collisions, in a highly competitive world.

 

From the very first moment Nicolás Fuch evidences a mechanically balanced temper. A sort of iceberg which doesn’t reveal any kind of emotional loss of control. And, apparently, this is where great part of his success lays. He has the necessary calmness to elude any obstacle which turns up in his ascending racing career, and at same time helps him not to feel dizzy with the achievements he is attaining so quickly.

Settled in his operations center, next to a dazzling sports car and amidst an endless number of bolts, nuts, and engines, he feels comfortable. He feels in his environment. And he rehearses a personal profile from there. “I am not a person of emotions- he confesses –, I am very quiet. There are many different race car drivers with different moods. I am not the driver who is desperate for starting the race. It is necessary to be quiet and with a very cold mind. You go at a very high speed and if you are nervous, everything turns to be very complicate.

 

“He is close to achieving the three consecutive championships”

 

Route of Ascent

Speed seems to be a natural quality for him. The results obtained are an irrefutable proof of his quality as a race car driver. In 2008, in his first participation in the Rally National Championship, he was able to defeat everybody. And he would not only repeat the success the following year, but in order to demonstrate his absolute hegemony, he is close to winning his third consecutive national championship.
Another quality that Fuchs possesses is that he is not afraid of challenges, even if at the beginning they may seem very difficult and insurmountable. Last year he decided to tempt fate in the South American FIA-Codasur and things were better than what any enthusiast would have imagined: he won the sub-championship. A great result achieved in spite of some difficulties, like the one which occurred in Bolivia, where the gearbox of his car failed. “I had to race in reverse”, he tells.

But things don’t end there: this year he chose to acquire greater international experience participating in some dates of the Rally World Championship. And with his debut in this category, competing with race car drivers with a much larger route, he also surprised locals and foreigners. It happened in Córdoba, Argentina.

“That was a well thought race” – remembers Fuchs – Keep in mind that I had never gone to see the Rally of Córdova. I had never participated in a race of the world championship. And competing with drivers who had raced that Rally some twenty times was very complicated.  My strategy was to go there and finish the race. I didn’t go to fight with them, because that was impossible”. And he not only achieved his goal, but also he worthily ended up in the 4th position, defeating the experienced Japanese pilot Tosh Arai in a hard battle, who in spite of having two world championships, had to resign himself to the 5th position, after our national credit. “There was not podium, but it was close”, he points out.
But Fuchs takes things calmly. Every success remains behind; they only help to focus in the present. Though there is always time to learn from past experiences. “At that moment I felt happy. The one that must have been furious must have been the Japanese”, he points out hinting a smile.

“Last year he obtained the sub-championship in the South American FIA-Codasur”.

 

 

The beginning

More than one theoretician in Psychology defends that the origin of everything starts during childhood. The case of Nicolas Fuchs confirms that axiom. For instance, his command of mechanics goes back to his childhood. Since the time he was very little he dismantled all the toys that were bought for him, even the electronic ones. None of them lasted more than two days. And with the pieces of one, he arranged the other. There were always dismantled things around him. “I liked to investigate how things worked”, he explains.

 

His passion for bolts and nuts comes from the family. His grandfather, uncles and parents, share that hobby. However, the subject of speed comes by own account. “From my father I inherited competitiveness. He sails, but I was not attracted by that sport. I found it too slow”.

Before turning eighteen, an adolescent impulse – or “a young boy’s insanity” as he prefers to call it – moved him to buy - with his own effort - a car which was not precisely in optimum conditions. “It had the engine in the trunk, and it was all dismantled – Fuchs recalls – It didn’t even last one month after being assembled and I dismantled it again.  The car was a disaster, everything was rusted. It was a young boy’s insanity, as I tell you. And so, little by little, I started to assemble it better, and that was the car that I used in my first race.  It was in Trujillo, in a circuit race, I believe it was in 2004 or 2005. After that, I sold it and I bought another one.  It was fun”.

At the beginning, as it can be easily understood, he didn’t have the support of the family. However, that situation was not a problem for Nicolás Fuchs to maintain his vocation. “I had to start under my own steam. My racing car was my normal car, and I raced it if there was enough money. I spent even my last cent in racing”. Not too much time had to pass when his family started to support him. They could see it was not a young boy’s insanity, but he did it well and could go ahead with it. But besides, sooner than later his achievements validated his professional election.

 

 “Next year I intend to race at the world championship and to be the champion”.

Next curve

Nicolás Fuchs is not afraid of danger. For instance, the first time he raced in Brazil his car flipped over. But these sorts of experiences do not discourage him. “I don’t pay attention to these – he explains -. I don’t see the ugly side; I only see the positive aspect. In conclusion, if you don’t risk, you don’t win, that’s it. Races are like that.  Even if you don’t want it to happen, you will always get hit or flip over.

Fortunately, Nicolás is a balanced pilot, whose maximum concentration in each race is undeniable. “I try to pay no attention to anybody else – he says -. I live my world quietly. If you start to think about the family, or about what people tell you, you get distracted”.

Nicolás doesn’t believe in speculations either. What seems important to him is the physical training and to know about the mechanics, particularly the latter. “There might be some failures which if you don’t fix you will lose the race”, he points out, while he poses for the flash of the photographer, in the conclusion of the conversation.

With respect to the future challenges, Nicolás is clear and convincing. “I intend to race next year in the world championship and to be the champion”. Reviewing his short but meaningful trajectory, to be a world champion is not a dream: it’s a tangible possibility that may be very close. Perhaps in the next curve.

(*) the complete article could be found in Orgullo del Perú Magazine issue Nº 30.