Tragic End: Christian Tarin Dies from Rally Crash Injuries in 1991

On Tuesday 15 October 1991 morning, in the military hospital "Instruction des Armees de Percy", near Paris, Christian Tarin succumbed to the injuries suffered three days before, during the 1991 Pharaons Rally.

The huge accident happened on the seventh day of the 12-day event, held in territory of Egypt, after the prologue at Voltri near Genoa, Italy one week before. Tarin was co-driving to Jacky Ickx in the yellow works Citroën ZX #203, in the Abu Simbel desert road at about 40 kilometers from Assuan, following Ari Vatanen in a similar car, who was leading the rally, when their car passed a subsidence at a speed of about 150 km/h (93 mi/h) and suddenly somersaulted several times, Its fuel tank ruptured during the rolls and erupted in flames. Jacky Ickx who was unhurt, managed to get off the car immediately by the broken windscreen, while Tarin being trapped into the burning wreckage.

Some minutes later an helicopter landed near the place of the accident, with Fenouil (Jean-Claude Morellet), creator and organizer of the Rallye des Pharaons, on board with the bosses of team Peugeot-Citroën, Jean Todt and Bernard Roché. Ickx and Todt helped other rescuers to extricate Christian Tarin from the burning car. He had sustained injuries and serious burns, and was unconscious, in critical condition. Tarin was taken to an Egyptian hospital and later he was airlifted to France, where unfortunately he succumbed three days after the accident.

A native of Etterbeek, near Bruxelles, Belgium, 40-years-old Christian Tarin was a close friend to fellow countryman Jacky Ickx. He made his racing debut as a motorcycle racer, in cross and trial events when he was 18, before moving to touring-car racing in Belgium. He and Ickx started racing together in cross-country rallies in 1988, obtaining a prestigious second place in the 1989 Dakar Rally, in a works Peugeot 405, and a sixth place in 1990 in a Lada. The pair joined team Camel-Citroën in 1991 taking part in the Dakar Rally and in the subsequent Baja Aragon - did not finish in both occasions. The following event was the Pharaons Rally and Ickx-Tarin drove one of the four Citroën ZX Rallye Raid cars entered by the team.

Christian Tarin was an electronic engineer by occupation, and a keen aircraft pilot, piloting one of the Dakar Rally service aircrafts for several editions of the rally. He was survived by his wife, then pregnant. Different sources indicate that despite he lived and was married in Belgium, Tarin's citizenship was not Belgian but French, this has not yet been confirmed.

This was the third fatality that happened during the 1991 Pharaons Rally. French competitor François Lepeltier lost his life when his Toyota crashed at high speed while crossing a desert dune, on Monday, 07 October 1991; four days later, a support-car for Camel-Citroën team overturned and its driver, mechanic Fabrice Le Roux was killed..