Dakar Rally to South America
Article from: Reuters
February 12, 2008 12:00am
THE 2009 Dakar Rally will be staged in South America after this year’s event was cancelled due to security concerns in Africa, organisers said today.
The event for cars, trucks and motorcycles will take place in Argentina and Chile from January 3 to 18, a spokesman for the French organisers Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO) said.
Details on next year’s race will be announced later.
The organisers did not say whether the event’s name would be changed.
The Dakar Rally, originally known as the Paris-Dakar, had always been staged entirely or mostly in Africa in its 30-year history.
It was cancelled for the first time last month due to security concerns in Mauritania where four French tourists were killed by suspected al Qaeda rebels in December.
Organisers had been advised by the French government to cancel the race because of a “terrorist risk” in Mauritania.
“We are not really surprised. We were expecting this decision, even if it’s true that we have lost a great opportunity to show the world our cultural heritage,” Mauritanian Tourism Minister Madine Ba told Reuters.
“This trail through the desert is enjoyed by many people and I’m sure other competitions will take up the baton. We’ve already been in contact with other rally organisers.”
Government officials have estimated the loss of the rally will cost Mauritania, an Islamic Republic straddling black and Arab West Africa, 3.6 million euros ($A5.53 million) this year alone.
Officials in neighbouring Senegal, from whose capital the rally takes its name, also said they were unsurprised by the decision not to hold the competition in Africa next year.
“We hope that as soon as the security conditions allow, the Dakar Rally will return to its source,” Dialo Kane, president of the Senegalese motor sports federation, told Reuters.
“A lot of competitors take part because of their love of Dakar and of the African continent.”
http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,23201748-5001023,00.html
2009 Dakar Rally moves to South America
The 2009 Dakar Rally will be staged in Argentina and Chile after this year’s event was cancelled due to security concerns in Africa.
The famous event for cars, trucks and motorcycles will take place in South America from Jan 3 to 18, starting in Buenos Aires.
Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO), organisers of the event, did not say whether the event’s name would be changed, but it is believed that the race will start and finish in the Argentine capital and take in 6,000 kilometres of special stages over a 9,000 km-long course.
The rally will also take in the Atacama desert in northern Chile, the Andes mountain range and the southern Argentinian region of Patagonia.
Rally director Etienne Lavigne said that the Dakar was not leaving Africa for good.
“The Dakar is visiting South America, it’s not quitting Africa. [The cancellation of Dakar 2008] cost us tens of millions of euros but we did well to err on the side of caution because three weeks later there was another attack in the centre of Nouakchott,” said Lavigne.
"In Argentina and Chile, we are guaranteed to find the ingredients that make up the spirit of the Dakar.
"Nomadic test par excellence, with 21 African countries so far visited, the Dakar has as its mandate the exploration of the world’s deserts.
“In the future, the world’s biggest rally will also be taken across other oceans to be staged in other continents,” he added.
The 2008 rally was cancelled earlier this year for the first time after ASO revealed that “direct threats” had been levelled at the race by terrorist organisations.
Organisers had been warned against a possible terrorist risk in Mauritania by the French government, where four French tourists were killed by suspected al Qaeda rebels in December.
The Dakar Rally, originally known as the Paris-Dakar, had always been staged entirely or mostly in Africa in its 30-year history.
A selection of cars owned by Peter Sauber, whose Swiss-based team were taken over by BMW at the end of 2005, will be auctioned off at Zurich airport over a six-week period next week. “This is the first time Formula One racing cars will be up for sale at Zurich Airport,” said Patrick Graf, head of marketing retail for the company that holds the government concession to operate the airport, in a statement. The Sauber F1 cars to be sold include ones raced by France’s Jean Alesi and Ferrari’s world champion Kimi Raikkonen
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/main.jhtml?xml=/sport/2008/02/11/sodakar111.xml&DCMP=OTC-Autonolnk
