In "GameFace," Chris and I covered the controversial race known as the Dakar in our Auto Racing chapter. This race had been called off in years past due to terrorist threats, but this year the race took place in South America for the first time. You certainly put your own life in your hands while watching these modified cars speed by, but still, here is the sad update to this story.
Read on for the excerpt from "GameFace." Keep in mind that it was written in 2008, but it still provides a good overview of the race (if I do say so myself!)
The Dakar Rally: Started in 1978, the Dakar is a race from a major European city down to Senegal in Africa, and it’s thought to be even more dangerous than the Baja 1000 — especially with the terrorist threats and political overtones that are now endangering the future of the race (oh yeah, and endangering the lives of the drivers and spectators!)
Whereas the Baja course finds racers driving straight through, the Dakar includes 15 grueling days of roughly 500-mile stages, with forced rest-stops. This adds up to a nearly 6,000-mile course, running from a major European city (usually Paris, but sometimes Barcelona and Lisbon) all the way down to Dakar, Senegal, in Africa. This race is for serious entrants only. The entry fee is much higher for racers, and the purse is higher, as well. The course is unmarked, but drivers are given a guidebook. Drivers can use a GPS, but only as a compass. There are specific classifications for each type of vehicle, and you’ll find more than 500 off-road motorcycles, cars and trucks competing. Roughly 20% are professional drivers (again, Robby Gordon has been a competitor), while 80% are amateurs. In 2007, it is reported that one million spectators followed the Dakar through Portugal.
The challenges in this course are again, difficult terrain that varies from volcanic rock to the desert, herds of wild animals, the possibility of testy locals, and in 2008, terrorism. Just hours before the race was to begin in January 2008, the French-run Dakar was cancelled for the first time in 30 years, because of Al-Qaeda threats in Mauritania, where eight of 15 stages of the race were to be held. After a family of four French tourists were killed in December 2007, and direct threats were made against the Dakar, the organizers said they had no choice but to cancel the race. The last-minute decision left many drivers, including our pal NASCAR driver Robby Gordon, furious. Sure, he lost more than .5 million because of the cancellation. But more than the money, he just wanted to race. He thought the organizers should have had a Plan B (and Plan C, D and E) in case something like this might to happen. In response to the cancellation, Gordon said in a statement, “Us racers, we like to race. Just get creative . . . Do something to keep the show in place and save face . . . I can’t believe they gave up that easy.” He also said some other things that are just not appropriate for print.
The organizers of the Dakar, who incidentally also run the Tour de France, pulled together a race through Central Europe in April 2008, in which Gordon, along with many of the would-be Dakar competitors, participated — especially because much of their equipment was still over in Portugal. The Dakar organizers have also planned a race in Argentina and Chile in January 2009. Still, there are hard feelings from many of the racers, as they were forced to incur costs associated with the cancellation, as well as disappoint many of their sponsors who paid big bucks to participate in the original Dakar race. As we wait for the drama to unfold, we’ll just sit back and crank up the song 500 Connards Sur la Ligne de Départ on iTunes. The French song is a harsh criticism of the Dakar, claiming that these rich jet-setters are spending ridiculous amounts of money to participate in this over-the-top race as Africans live in poverty around them. Translated to English, the title of the song is “500 Assholes at the Starting Line.” (But we’re sure they’re not talking about our friend Robby!)
