Article wrote:Since 1979, the Dakar Rally has never been canceled. Individual stages have been eliminated, but never the entire rally. This year is marks the end of the run: Dakar organizer ASO have decided to cancel the race in light of terrorist threats from Mauritania. The rally was to run from Lisbon, Portugal to Dakar, Senegal from January 5-20.
Mauritania was formerly a French colony, and the ASO (Amaury Sport Organization, the same folks who put on the Tour de France) is a French organization. It appears that anything French is a target for the time being: on December 28, 2007, four French tourists were murdered in Mauritania by "a branch of Al Qaeda in Islamic Maghreb," and threats have also been made directly against the race.
Eight of the race's fifteen stages were to take place in Mauritania. After being advised not to hold the race by the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the ASO felt it had no choice but to cancel this year's edition. It's regrettable, and a sad day for motorsport, but it had to be done.
Wasn't that part of the challenge of the rally, though? Dealing with some of the local "disputes"?
UPDATE: The race might be moved to South America. See post below.
--Alan
Last edited by WRXWagon2112 on Tue Jan 08, 2008 2:29 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Sabre (Julian) 92.5% Stock 04 STI
Good choice putting $4,000 rims on your 1990 Honda Civic. That's like Betty White going out and getting her tits done.
Ok, this is a little late, but when I was waiting at the airport coming back to CA, I talked with Robby Gordon's dad for 2 hours.
They had shipped the Hummer over, but the support parts were stuck on a broken-down ship, and wouldn't arrive until three days into the event. The cancellation probably bodes well for their team...
Same race, different continent? Chile offers to host Dakar Rally
SANTIAGO, Chile -- The Chilean government will back a proposal to bring the Dakar Rally to South America after terrorist threats forced the cancellation of the off-road endurance race traditionally staged across the Sahara desert.
The head of the Chilean Tourism Service, Oscar Santelices, said a formal letter will be sent next week to the France-based rally organizer Amaury Sports Organization expressing Chile's interest to host it.
Santelices told local media, however, that no financial support would be committed.
Chile's deputy sports minister, Jaime Pizarro, also said the government would be interested as "the idea appears on the line with the official policy of hosting important international sports events."
The reaction in Chile came after the Spanish sports newspaper As reported that South America was being considered as an alternative to the African territory, and that the epic motorcycle, car and truck race, staged annually since 1979, could cross through Argentina, Brazil and Chile.
In Chile, the rally would go through the northern Atacama desert, the world's driest, where a local rally called Patagonia-Atacama is staged annually.
Local media reported that across the Andes in Argentina, organizers of the annual Rally of the Pampas are also interested in hosting a portion of the Dakar Rally.
Carlo De Gavardo, a Chilean motorcycle rider who has competed in the Dakar Rally several times, said a major advantage for South American countries hosting the rally is the security they offer in the territories where the race would be staged.
He said a decision on the new site would probably be made in February, and that other likely alternatives are Australia, Russia and China.
Amaury Sport Organization, the group behind the Dakar Rally, has found a new venue after threats of terrorism caused the group to cancel the annual rally last month. The newly rescheduled and renamed race will be held April 20th through 26th in Romania and Hungary, offering a markedly different venue for an event that would otherwise be held in the arid landscape of the Sahara.
The Central Europe Rally will cover some 3,000 kilometers over the course of six days, with around half of the competitions taking place on special stages. While the title is different, all the big name teams from Dakar will be in attendance, including BMW, KTM, Mitsubishi, Schlesser and Volkswagen.
This first event also stands as the inaugural race of the "Dakar Series," which was supposed start in 2009, but will now begin a year ahead of schedule. The new series seeks to bring the excitement and media attention of the Dakar Rally to a number of other events spread across the globe and has been in the works for the last several years. Here's to the A.S.O. for turning lemons into Margaritas.
Now the Associated Press is reporting that the 2009 Dakar Rally will be held in Argentina and Chile: Link
Argentina and Chile will host the 2009 edition of the Dakar Rally, which was canceled this year because of fears of terrorism in Africa.
Organizers said Monday the race will start in Buenos Aires on Jan. 3 and finish in the Argentine capital Jan. 18. The full route will be announced Tuesday in Argentina by Patrice Clerc, who runs the company that organizes the rally.
This year marked the first time that the 30-year-old rally, one of the biggest competitions in automobile racing, was called off. The threat of terrorist attacks pushed the element of risk to levels organizers deemed unacceptable.
The roughly 550 competitors were to have embarked on a 16-day, 5,760-mile trek through remote and hostile dunes and scrub from Portugal to Dakar, Senegal.
The race, once known as the Paris-Dakar, was canceled following warnings from the French government about safety after the al-Qaida-linked Dec. 24 slaying of a family of French tourists in Mauritania. Eight of the competition's 15 stages were to be held there.
Organizers promised that the cancellation did not mean the end of the Dakar race.
As we reported last week, the Amaury Sport Organization that has held the annual Dakar Rally uninterrupted since 1979 has forged ahead after this year's event was cancelled an account of terrorist threats. They've already announced a new schedule of events called the Dakar Series that will kick off with the Central Europe Rally to be held April 20-26 in Romania and Hungary, and now they've gotten around to picking the venue for next year's official Dakar Rally.
The fine nations of Argentina and Chile will be the new location for the 2009 Dakar Rally. The 9000 kilometer-long rally will be held January 3-18 and use the city of Buenos Aires as its start and finish line. Competitors who have raced in previous Dakar rallies in Africa as well as rallies in South America are surmising that the relocated Dakar event could actually be more difficult than it was before, which is fine with them. Mitsubishi, which has won the Dakar Rally every year since 2001, is also interested in competing again, and all the competitors quoted by the AFP seem genuinely impressed that the ASO has moved so quickly to reestablish the race and grow a new series just one month after the 2008 Dakar Rally was cancelled.
