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Dakar 2009: Shaking things up at Stage 12

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As was so kindly pointed out by a commenter on Tom’s most recent Forgotten Ugly Sporty Cars post, I haven’t been keeping up to date with Dakar. I hate to say it, but sometimes life gets in the way of reporting.

While I’ve been away though, some pretty crazy stuff has been going on. Stage 11 was canceled due to wicked weather. WRC champ Carlos Sainz had a big one, dropping the nose of his VW into a ditch and flipping the beast on it’s roof. Somehow, he thought he would continue even though his co-piloto has a broken shoulder.

While Sainz’s retirement is big news, so is the climb of American Robby Gordon who is now up to 3rd overall. With a second place on Stage 10 and 3rd today on 12, it looks like the Dakar Gods are finally beginning to smile upon Robby G.

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Default ThumbnailRobby Gordon Video of the day from Dakar: Day 6 Default ThumbnailRobby Gordon Video of the day from Dakar: Day 8 Default ThumbnailRobby Gordon Dakar Videos: Stages 12 & 13 Default ThumbnailThe latest news on Dakar… finally. Default ThumbnailDakar 2009: Robby Gordon is movin’ on up

Dakar heads to South America

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ASO, the organizers of the event, have signed a deal with a promotion company in Argentina! And although the South American rally likely won’t happen this year, when it does it will likely revert to Dakar’s traditional January 1 starting date and take the place of the Pampas Rally in the FIA Cross Country Rally World Cup. The Pampas Rally will go to Chile and back again.

There has been other routes discussed such as Paris to Beijing Dubai and even Australia but the reports show those possibilities as being too expensive. Morocco was also discussed but intelligence ruled out because of terrorist problems in that area.

ASO had discussed running the event in 2008 just in Morocco, but intelligence ruled that out with terrorists close to the Mauritanian border.

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Default ThumbnailAnother Reason to Totally Detest Al-Qaeda

Another Reason to Totally Detest Al-Qaeda

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Is this really what the world has come to? It seems even a legendary rally in the twisted minds of Al-Qaeda is contrary to their beliefs.

The Dakar Rally, the legendary race across the Sahara which is one of motorsport’s toughest and most dangerous competitions, has been cancelled for the first time in its 30-year history because of security fears. There have been security warnings in the past, but never potent enough to scrap the entire race.
[Read more…]

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