WORLDWIDE MOTOR RACING COVERAGE, OPINION AND ANALYSIS

THERE GOES THE NEIGHBORHOOD! CANCELED DAKAR RALLY MOVES TO SOUTH AMERICA!

al. Almost 600 teams had gathered in Lisbon to prepare for the start of the event, which this year was celebrating the event's 30th year. American racer Robby Gordon (photo), who captains a team which was slated to run two Hummer vehicles, which cost an estimated $1 million+ each, was understandably upset with the cancellation. Gordon, who had taken part in past Dakar events, wrote at length on his own website about the estimated $4.5 million the team had already spent, much of it on the carbon fiber Hummers and the team of 40 people who had arrived in Lisbon several days before the cancellation, waiting for the green flag and the excitement to begin ... And this amount not even taking into account the team members who stayed "back home"; several dozen fabricators, machinists, various tech experts and staff members with the combination to the Gordon safe. (Photo - A biker breaks down n the Sahara ... "I don't think it'll rub out").

But the Dakar event has often come "under fire" from various sources, including Pope John Paul II,  who lamented the native people who had died in Dakar-related accidents (some in the Vatican have estimated that number as high as 59), the destruction of habitat, including parts of the Sahara Desert, and the destruction of personal property. Several French vacationers and soldiers in North Africa had been killed shortly before the Dakar was to start, four of them reported to be members of the same family. Several terrorist warnings and threats specifically aimed at the rally has been reported this year. That was the 'official' reason given to the teams and the media for the sudden, last-minute cancellation, but a few team members in Lisbon when the event was canceled, told a story concerning the sanctioning body losing their insurance coverage as the real reason behind the cancellation.

Now, South America to the rescue! (Photo - The huge support trucks started having their own race a few years ago, this truck with sponsorship from French oil company Total, and Czech truck-maker Tatra).

Autosport, a popular European motor racing magazine, reported today that, "After the cancellation of the 2008 Dakar Rally following terrorist threats, it appears that the route for 2009 will be completely new, moving continents from Africa to South America. ASO, the organizers of the event, have signed a deal with a promotion company in Argentina to have a fresh start, therefore distancing themselves to the terrorist problems that eventually stopped the 2008 edition earlier this month.

A return to the traditional January 1st start date looks to be in the cards, with the rally taking over the former Rally Raid World Cup event in Argentina, The Pampas Rally. The route looks to go to Chile and back. Other routes that have been investigated include Dubai, but this may be too short. Paris-Beijing was favored by Mitsubishi and KTM, but the conditions may be too cold for a January running. (Photo - Motorcycles compete with a helicopter hovering nearby).

Paris-Beijing is being run this year by former Dakar winner Rene Metge, but concerns of high costs reportedly were problematic. Australia has also been looked at too, but it seems Africa is out of the running for a while. ASO had discussed running the event in 2008 just in Morocco, but intelligence ruled that out with terrorists close to the Mauritanian border. It also has become apparent that the terrorist threats made directly to ASO following the murder of four French tourists near Nouakchott, Mauritania were specific towards the rally, and made by groups that intelligence sources say were heavily armed and organized.

With a bivouac at night of upwards of 1500 people, the consequences could have been unthinkable. There was to be a bivouac in Nouakchott for two nights as it was to be the venue for the rest day, meaning that people would naturally wander off into the town from the bivouac, potentially putting themselves in danger." (end of Autosport story).

Frankly, what's the difference between North Africa and South America? Are there no terrorists in South America? We know of the Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path) Maoists in Peru, and there are other terrorist groups and narco-terrorists in almost every South and Central American nation. Getting into southern Mexico, there are states and areas which have been engaged in a near full-scale war between narcotics militas, the federal police (Federales) and the local police. And if the same format for the rally is kept, then the personal property and, especially, the lives of local native peoples, as well as the environment, will be subject to the same problems as the people, property and ecology of North Africa. (Photo - Bike racers "fill 'er up" at a middle-of-nowhere pit stop).

Don't they get it at the ASO? The time has come, now that we are in the 21st century, for these "wide open" rallies and "open road races", which have gained some amount of popularity in the US, simply have to be stopped. It just isn't cool anymore for people from another country to show-up en masse to participate in a race which means the ripping-up of the deserts, the dry lake beds and mountain forests (which are all of the natural environments found in both the Baja 500 and Baja 1,000. Land needs to be set aside for the use of these events, but only if the indigenous peoples offer their blessing for the rally, not just some organizers and a sanctioning body fully a Continent away.

'DAKAR RALLY' CANCELED; WHAT TOOK THEM SO LONG?

The Dakar Rally, known originally as the Paris - Dakar Rally, today known worldwide as "Le Dakar", has been canceled. This website has taken a strong stance against the phenomenon of "open road racing", in which public roads are closed for the benefit of a few wealthy individuals attracted by the prospect of running their own cars, trucks or motorcycles as fast as possible on a public road without having to face oncoming traffic.

And I do not come to this argument with completely clean hands --- I did the PR work for the very first "Silver State Classic" in Nevada, and in that event, there was a fatality, that of the wife of a dentist/racer who had entered his own Ferrari in the so-called "race". In fact, I had placed the then-editor of HOT ROD magazine in one of the cars as a passenger, and the first radio reports we had of the fatal crash had we organizers thinking that it was this man who had been killed, someone I knew quite well. That turned out to not be the case, but any death or injury in any "sporting" situation is terrible occurrence. (Photo Above --- Robbie Gordon, of Orange, California, was all dressed-up for the Dakar Rally but turned out he had nowhere to go in his Hummer).

This ridiculous Dakar Rally “race” exists mainly for the benefit of mostly very wealthy individuals and multi-national corporations, and very white people, has annually roared through scores of towns and villages populated by typically very poor and black residents. The Rally on occasion killed ‘spectators’, as the ‘race’ would run through North Africa with near-complete impunity, almost akin to how mercenary groups such as Blackwater are treated in Iraq, where mercenary employees are protected, by law, from being prosecuted for any crime. (Photo --- The Volkswagen Touareg 2 factory team, powered by TDI diesel engines, were looking forward to competing in "Le Dakar" for the third year in a row; those hopes have been dashed, however, much to the benefit of all involved).

Those involved with the Dakar Rally are not legally protected from any prosecution, and are supposed to adhere to local laws and customs. But the reality is that if a vehicle involved with the Rally struck or injured a person or people or did physical damage to virtually anything standing in their way, it was very difficult to get all the facts in the middle of a trans-continent race (also known as "raids" in Europe) with participants in their race vehicles moving along at speeds approaching and even exceeding 120+ miles per hour.

But it was the tragic deaths of four French nationals in Mauritania on December 24, 2007, and not the ongoing series of local deaths (which the Vatican has estimated at a shocking 54), untold number of injuries and wanton destruction of very sensitive desert and private property since 1979, which finally prompted the cancellation, according to organizers ASO.

Some affiliated with the event as members of race teams, said, on-the-scene where the event was to have begun tomorrow, in Lisbon, Portugal and where the full complement of 570 race teams had arrived from around the world and were waiting for the race's start, that the ASO's loss of insurance coverage is the "real" problem which forced its cancellation. (Photo --- Pope John Paul II greeted Ferrari chief Luca de Montezemolo, world driving champion Michael Schumacher and other members of the Ferrari F1 team to the Vatican where His Holiness expressed his positive interest in and the importance of legitimate sports, and, we imagine, thanked the team for what they had achieved for the Ol' Home Country. John Paul II had expressed several times, but not that this meeting, though, his dissatisfaction with the Dakar Rally and the punishment it meted out to the residents of and the desert landscape itself of North Africa).

Press coverage of this cancellation is huge worldwide, except in North America, where the sport of rallying is not  well-known. However, media coverage on an Israeli website and elsewhere worldwide concerning the cancellation read in part: "The 2008 Dakar Rally race has been canceled due to security concerns and a "direct threats against the race issued by terrorist groups," the Amaury Sport Organization (ASO), which sponsors the race, said Friday (1-4-08). This is the first time in the Dakar's 30-year history that the controversial car-motorcycle Sahara Desert race has been canceled. 

"Following several consultations with the French government, in particular the ministry of foreign affairs, and taking into account its firm recommendations, the organizers of the Dakar have taken the decision to cancel the 2008 edition of the rally," the ASO said.

The race was scheduled to begin in Lisbon on Saturday, January 5th, but the murder of four French tourists in Mauritania on December 24, 2007 --– which has been linked to Al-Qaeda --- prompted the French government to issue a travel advisory for the country."

"There are thousands of people here, hundreds of drivers, crewmen and administrators and they're all is total shock," Dror Cohen, an Israeli driver scheduled to race Saturday, told Ynet (an Israeli website). (Photo --- David Blais was the first American finisher in a recent Dakar Rally, his KTM motorcycle carrying him for thousands of miles).

"We could feel something was wrong when we got here yesterday (Thursday, 1-3-08)... there were rumors about the race being canceled, but we didn't take them seriously at first. When we got to the assembly area, the organizers asked us to hold off on all the preparations for the race until they hold a press conference," he added. "They just announced the race is canceled. People here just can't believe it." 

Cohen went on to describe how the 570 driving teams were now packing up their gear and returning the equipment they were given on-site. "Now there are rumors that the (French) Foreign Ministry recommendation to cancel the race is nothing more than a cover for the insurance companies; apparently they pulled out and told the organizers they won't cover the thousands of people here if they'll be entering high-risk countries," said Cohen." (end of article)

In fact, even the Vatican has regularly attacked "Le Dakar". An organization called "Angelqueen.org" which says it exists for "The Purity and Tradition in Catholicism", on October 10, 2007, reported on their website:

"The Vatican has decried the death of South African motorcyclist Elmer Symons in the Dakar Rally, the latest of many associated with what it called "a bloody, irresponsible race". (Photo --- Gigantic diesel-powered trucks serve as the "home away from home" for cars and bike competitors in "Le Dakar"; these "one-off" trucks became so highly-specialized that a race class was created just for them ... Not only are they the "pit stops in a truck" for competing teams, but they're also racing each other --- How'd ya like gettin' nailed by one of these bad boys, or see your house run over by one?).

The Vatican newspaper Osservatore Romano said in the issue to appear on Thursday that 29-year-old Symons died in a race that had "precious little to do with healthy competition".

"The trail of blood that lengthens from one year to the next... emphasises the undeniable component of violence underlying any attempt to export 'Western' modes to a human and ecological context that has little to do with the West," the weekly said in an article datelined Rabat (Morocco). (Photo --- Work often continues on the race vehicles through the night night; intense lamps keep a beam focused on vehicles parked in the pit area all night).

"With a cynical attitude that ignores the reality (of the countries) traversed by cars, motorcycles and even enormous trucks which throw themselves at breakneck speed into the desert where their carcasses are often abandoned to rot, becoming rusty monuments to irresponsibility."

Figures vary on the number of people - contestants, spectators, journalists and bystanders - who have been killed during the period of the rally since its inception in 1979 but Osservatore Romano put the figure at 54. (End of story).

The Rally's history is documented in this way on the ACO website: "In 1977, Thierry Sabine, motorcycle rider on the Abidjan-Nice Rally, was saved in extremis after being lost in the Libyan desert. The following year, he created Le Paris-Dakar, a race open to all riders and drivers sparked by the spirit of adventure. Since then, the popular, media and sporting success of Le Dakar has never failed. Without forsaking any of its magic, Le Dakar has moved on, gained in maturity and safety, welcomed an ever-increasing number of competitors of all nationalities, all come to seek after a dream in its raw form, adventure and the quest of their own limits."

ASO also claims to have made efforts to protect the very fragile environment where the Rally bisects North Africa: "En route for superb landscapes, riders & drivers also meet up with captivating peoples and many of them fall in love with Africa. Early on, the event’s creators wanted to give back to Africa what the continent had offered them in terms of pure emotion. By signing a partnership with SOS SAHEL in September 2002, Le Dakar underlined its intent to pursue and extend help to African populations. Under the label “ACTIONS DAKAR”, a three-year plan was launched to combat desertification of the Sahel strip in the Senegal and provide a healthier environment for the town of Louga." (Photo --- "Uh, you guys got a map?" The Sahara Desert has been a big part of the Dakar Rally where competitors often got lost and even drove in circles for hours or a day or more to find their way back to the track. Today's GPS devices help keep competitors and support crews at least pointed in the same direction).

Maybe the Dakar Rally, next year, should be run, let's say, between Wales and Scotland.

So, you ask, what about off-road racing Baja California? Baja California, in spite of its name, is part of Mexico, and not the US.

Good question, and we're against any of these "open road course" events, on pavement, dirt or sand which are irresponsible in any way. That being said, the Baja 500 and Baja 1,000 races have both been operating for decades, and the sanctioning body, SCORE, headed-up by Sal Fish (who they call "Senor Pescado" in Mexico) appears to have developed a close relationship with Baja civic officials over the years. As far as I know, the route for the Baja races is fairly clearly-marked and there is less of the "open course racing" similar to what we've seen in the Dakar event.

All that being said, if SCORE (Southern California Off-Road Enthusiasts) is ripping-up pieces of real estate up-and-down the Baja Peninsula which would usually be protected in this country, and if race and/or support vehicles are destroying any flora or fauna which would typically be protected on the north side of the Baja border, then SCORE should be working more closely with the Mexican authorities. (Artwork --- Map of Baja California).

In these times of enlightened environmental understanding which transcends borders, it's not enough for SCORE to "live up" (or some might say, "live down") to Mexico's standards, which often are sub-standard to those in the US. SCORE should bring a California-minded kind of concern with them when they leave the US behind to ply their sport in a country where there might be more emphasis on the sorely-needed money entering the country, rather than the plants, animals, deserts, mountains and people which might be injured, often permanently, during the event itself.

It is no secret that SCORE has brought many, many millions of dollars into Baja, an area which has been traditionally short-changed by its own Federal government, and a lot of those monies have gone to fund some good, important causes (school, clinics and the like). It's no secret, either, that large infusions of American dollars into Baja twice a year, from these two races, has its dark side, too.

In any event, even if all claims on both sides of the Dakar Rally issue were set aside, or even unknown to the general motoring public and rally racing fans, the concept of any "wide-open" on- or off-road race with virtually no controls on the competitors simply doesn't "pass the smell test" in the 21st century.