The Dakar Rally

I am going to talk about the Dakar Rally. This event took place during December 2008 in South America. This rally is the most important of all the other rallies during year.

This year the rally has been moved to South America because of the terrorist threats that could affect the race. The previous year the race was cancelled for the same reason, so the decision to move it to another continent was a good idea, rather than cancelling it.

At the same time the race is going to be more interesting because none of the drivers repeating in this race know the terrain.

In this rally there are four categories: motorbikes, cars, trucks and finally quads. The Dakar takes three weeks, more or less, and in this edition covers two countries; Argentina and Chile. This year the rally starts and finishes in the same place - Buenos Aires.

The rally covers 10,000 kilometres over different surfaces. This is not the real rally, because the reason why the drivers sign up for this race is to start in Paris and finish in the pink lake passing through the dunes.

The competition started in 1979 when a French man born in Paris visited Dakar and fell in love with the Pink Lake.

This adventure is different other ones; there are different stops to fill up with petrol, and each leg covers more or less 250 kms. per day. However, to earn points you are judged every 500 kms.

The sad thing about this rally is that every year someone dies because you drive alone and if you get lost you can spend some days alone in the desert. The death rate so far is 37 deaths.

This year the favourites in the different categories were; Marc Coma in motorbikes with a KTM, in cars Carlos Sainz with a Volkswagen, A Dutch man in trucks and a Spaniard in quads.

The Dakar is not only a competition, it also helps the people of the region.