Dakar 2008 cancelled

The 2008 Dakar Rally has been cancelled over concerns about the safety of the event in Mauritania following terrorist threats from Al Qaeda.

The French government warned the Dakar organisers yesterday against holding stages in Mauritania because it said "the terrorist risk" could not be ruled out.

A source close to the organization has told autosport.com that they have decided to cancel the event, and an official announcement is expected at 1pm in Lisbon, where the rally was scheduled to begin tomorrow.

More to follow.

[www.autosport.com]

Such a shame, I was really looking forward to it
But if the drivers safety can't be guaranteed, this is the only right decision.

As has been discussed on other forums, this could possibly be the end of the Dakar all together. The private teams which make u the majority of the entries cannot afford a cancellation like this. Whilst the organisers are refunding the entry money, that is only a fraction of the costs spent on the preparation for the event so far. Some teams run on a shoe lace budget and the sponsors will be demanding the money back.

Canceling the event once for terrorist threats means that come next year, threats just need to be made again and they will cancel again.

As for safety, drivers have had safety issues at every Dakar event, and this is not that different. Unfortunately the nature of the Dakar and the countries it goes through makes it a very dangerous event for security.

If the Rally is not moved to a more secure country (or set of countries) for 2009 then it's possibly the last Dakar Rally we will see. But if it is moved, then it means no Dakar.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
theRacingLine.net
SportsCarArchives.com

DaveEllis Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
If the Rally is not moved to a more secure country
(or set of countries) for 2009 then it's possibly
the last Dakar Rally we will see. But if it is
moved, then it means no Dakar.
-------------------------------------------------------

Sure, if they moved it, it wouldn't be the "Dakar" as such, but that would be a small price to pay, at least the race would be run.

And it's not like it hasn't finished in Dakar before, when it once finished in Cape Town, and on another occasion in Cairo, so it's not entirely unfeasible that it could end somewhere else, just it could be on a more permanent basis.

I'll agree about the private teams, being a fan of one (Schlesser), I hope many of them can make it through to next year.

Over the semantics of the name, when was the last time the race started in Paris? And yet it's still the Paris-Dakar. So not finishing in Senegal is a minor price to pay. I'd expect Schlesser to be fine, it's the privateers who don't enter the other RR events throughout the year that'll struggle IMHO - which makes up a large number of the entrants (abit like in the good old days of the Indy 500 when scres of privateer teams would turn up for one race only). There may be others along to replace them next year- but will Sponsors be happy to plough money in knowing it may be cancelled again? I doubt it. This could hit the manufacturers far harder - for the likes of Mitsubishi this is a horrendously expensive operation - and the attraction of other RR events may not be enough to sway the top brass.

actually, the name has been only 'Dakar' since the start moved to Lisbon.

Dakar Rally Off to South America [news.bbc.co.uk]

Organisers of the 2009 Dakar Rally have confirmed plans for the new-look event, which will take place in South America for the first time next January.

The 9,000km loop course will start and finish in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Starting on 3 January, competitors will race south to Patagonia, into the Andes mountains and then Chile's Atacama desert, before the finale on the 18th.

This year's rally did not take place after four French tourists were murdered in Mauritania in December.

Eight of the 15 stages of the rally are usually held in the north-west African country.

The event's organisers, the Amaury Sport Organisation, said there had been "direct threats against the race issued by terrorist groups".


It was necessary to take a break in Africa... the fact the resumption is on a new continent is good news

Mitsubishi Motorsport chief Dominique Serieys

Competitors will be able to sign up for next year's edition from 15 May.

"Signing-up priority will be given to the Dakar 2008 competitors," said Etienne Lavigne, director of the Dakar Rally.

Dominique Serieys, head of Mitsubishi Motorsport, the sporting subsidiary of the Japanese manufacturer unbeaten on the Dakar since 2001, said the announcement that the 2009 edition would go ahead in South America was timely.

"It's good news, one month after the cancellation of the 2008 rally," said Serieys.

"Mitsuibishi will announce its decision at the end of February or beginning of March. In principle we're very interested.


"We've already taken part in the Atacama Rally and the Las Pampas Rally. Chile and Argentina are countries where there are great varieties of terrain." [/i

---

Team Owner of ItalianEnglish Dynamics in GPG Super League
GP4 Season 5: 7) Jethro Walters. 8) Zsigmond Somogyi. TD) Stuart Ingers and Joel Henrique
GP3 Season 5: 14) Nathan Turner. 15) Tobias Kederer.
6 Time Race Winners