What may be the most extreme sporting event in existence takes the green flag on Saturday, January 6, 2007. While many people think of this as the Paris-Dakar Rally, this year’s route begins in Lisbon, not Paris. To most fans, the event is simply Dakar. There is nothing simple about the route though, as competitors travel a total of 7915 km in only 15 days through the toughest terrain that Mother Earth can throw at them.

The sheer size of the field shows that there is no shortage of rally enthusiasts with the balls and the wallets needed to compete at Dakar. This is no ordinary rally raid. The entry list currently doesn’t list the truck class, but the car (if you can call them that) class has no fewer than 189 entrants. Those with the most testicular solidity must be the bikers. All 263 of them! These crazies are travelling all that distance alone, while doing all navigating and field repairs by themselves. Those who finish are indeed superheros.

Some of the names in the car category are a who’s who of international motorsports. NASCAR bad boy Robbie Gordon, rally legends Ari Vatanen & Carlos Sainz, Champ Car racer Phillipe Gache, not to mention a whole host of Dakar regulars are set to do battle in the deserts of Africa.

Here at The Garage, we will do our best to keep you up to date on this year’s progress. You can find your local TV source here