How the Dakar Rally started...

Over the years, you might have memorised that Dhaka is the capital city of Bangladesh. The topic we are dealing with today with a similar sounding name may imply that the rally has a connection to Dhaka.

However, the truth is that the name of the rally comes from the city 'Dakar' of Senegal and this particular rally has been a primary racing event of the world for the past twenty nine years. Although it was held annually for the last twenty nine years, sadly this year's encounter which was scheduled to be held in January was called off due to terrorist activities in the region. However, let's look in to what this contest is all about......

Although this event is famous as the Dakar Rally, it has been also known as 'The Paris Dakar' or 'Paris to Dakar Rally'. But now the name, 'The Lisboa Dakar' is slowly becoming popular. This is an annual off-road race, and the 'Amaury Sport Organisation' is the governing body for this massive event.

As the name of the event implies that it is a rally, first we'll enlighten you as to what a rally race is as we once explained in one of the previous editions of Sports Track. It is a race where the drivers and the co-drivers gather at some point and then leave the place at regular intervals to reach a particular point.

However, this particular event is somewhat different to a rally in certain aspects. Actually, it is an off-road endurance race rather than a conventional rally because the terrain which the competitors have to conquer is much tougher and the vehicles used are true off-road vehicles rather than the modified sedans used in usual rallies.

The entire rally takes place as a series in stages and the distances covered in each stage varies from a few kilometres up to 800 or 900 kilometres per day.

All stages provide a truly challenging experience for the racers, which are made up of land-forms like off-road sections, sand dunes, mud, camel grass and rocks.

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How the event evolved

Like many other sports, this event too has quite an interesting beginning, which can be known as rather unusual. Way back in 1977, a French racer named Thierry Sabine had got lost in the desert.

His first intentions might have obviously been to get out of the hostile environment, however, later on, he had come up with the idea that such desert terrain would be a good location for a race. Ultimately, his dream became true and the first event was held in 1978, one year after his adventure at the desert.

Originally, the rally had been held from Paris to Dakar. However this wasn't a continuous race since there was an interruption in the race course due to a transfer across the Mediterranean Sea.

Over time, the course, including origin and destination, had undergone change due to politics and other factors. Dakar has been the destination city during all races except four.

Paris has been the starting point for the race until 1995. The race in 1994 was special since it was scheduled that the starting point as well as the ending point should be Paris.

But, due to complaints by the mayor, the finish had to be moved from the Champs -?lys,es of Paris to Euro Disney. As a result of this, the locations were changed in successive encounters of the event.

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Classes of vehicles

The Dakar Rally is a race which tests the endurance of the driver as well as the machine which he is driving. Therefore, the vehicles which are used in the race are extremely rugged and powerful. These machines are divided into three categories; Moto Class, Car Class and Truck Class.

The Moto Class consists of bikes which are once again divided in to three sub categories ranging from group one to three. Group one bikes are merely unmodified bikes and once you go up to group three the modifications and engine capacities of bikes increase.

The Car Class is a collection of many vehicles like buggies and Sports Utility Vehicles (SUVs). However, the demarcation is done by the weight of the vehicles, which specifies that vehicles coming under this category should be below 3,500 kilograms.

Car production companies make it a point to come up with a vehicle with the best performance since a top rank in this race truly becomes an amazing marketing vehicle. At present the main competitors in the car class are Mitsubishi, Volkswagen and Nissan.

The Truck Class as you might have guessed comprises vehicles which are heavier than 3,500 kilograms. There are two sub categories in this, namely T4 and T5. The T4 trucks are the ones which actually compete in the race while the T5 trucks are used to support the competitor's vehicle.

Aravinda Dassanayake