On The Road

DREAM, DARE, LIVE THE DAKAR

by Helen Tait-Wright

As I write, the 2022 edition of the Dakar rally is nearing completion, and it has been a corker!

The perfect way to disperse the January blues, even as a spectator, or in my case a remote reporter.

In the spectacular landscapes of the Empty Quarter in Saudi Arabia, competitors pit their machines and themselves against the clock over 12 gruelling stages. Of course the large works teams provide the main spectacle as they put their specially prepared vehicles through this ultimate test of endurance.

Always pushing at the edges of innovation, Audi is running 3 prototype electric cars in the event, and there is a very impressive completely Hydrogen powered truck too. off road trainer from Poitiers, Vincent Remblier in his Toyota. As with many of the mythical endurance rally events, the Dakar (previously Paris Dakar) was a French idea and is still a French run event.

The inception of the Dakar Rally was something of a happy accident. In 1977, a seasoned French motorcycle rider, Thierry Sabine, was competing in the Abidjan-Nice rally when he got lost in the Tenere Desert in the South Central Sahara.

While attempting to regain his bearings, Sabine couldn’t help but notice that the desert he found himself in would make for a fantastic proving ground for a long-distance rally event. So, once he’d made his way back to civilization, he started kicking around the idea of organizing a new off-road endurance event, and by December 26th of 1978, 182 competitors were lining up for the first-ever Paris To Dakar Rally. Though only 74 riders would complete the roughly 6,200-mile journey, the Dakar was born.

Until 2008 the rally continued to run through the African continent but in the mid 2000s, security concerns moved the event to South America before moving again to its current location in Saudi in 2020.

This year sees the second running of the Dakar Classic event, alongside the main competition and the entry list is up from 20 something in 2021 to over 140 cars. As this is the side of the event I am reporting on, naturally my interest has been grabbed by the Land Rover teams and the fabulous 911’s but we have a “local” entry too in the form of an Make no mistake, the Dakar is a tough event.

12 stages traversing as many as 9,000 miles of a variety of the planet’s least-forgiving terrains and conditions. For the main field this is done at incredible speed, with the winner being the fastest man, or woman, on the course. The 7 main categories are the Motorbikes, where it all began, Quads, Cars of course, Light Protypes, SSVs, Trucks and the Open category. accepted them due to the idea of a Series completing the event being so insane! These little Land Rovers are notorious for being bone shakers and to complete the event is going to be a major feat for man and machine! As I write they are still going, albeit not without a whole host of problems, which has made for compulsive following! Maybe their story is an article for later …. For now, the cars are still out there battling the sand, the rocks, the dust and the heat with the finish line ever closer, and I must get back to following them, and dreaming my own Dakar Classic dreams ….. until next time ….

For the Classic category, they run a regularity rally over a different course.

A regularity rally is a type of motorsport rally with the object of driving each segment of a course in a specified time at a specified average speed. Not as easy as it sounds, particularly when your course is in the harsh desert terrain! The navigators follow a road book provided by the organisers as well as keeping their eyes on the timing equipment, while the drivers negotiate the terrain. The Classic category is proving to be a real hit as the cars are ones we all know and recognise and perhaps even remember competing back in their era as opposed to the more futuristic machines in the main categories.

One team in particular has captured everyone's imagination; a Czech team running three Series II Land Rovers. They got an entry because although they do not really fall into the entry criteria, the organisers