Few sporting events have been reinvented as much as the Dakar. From its first editions it barely retains the name, a registered trademark that serves as a tribute to all those who competed in Africa until terrorism drove them out too many years ago. Then South America came along and the raid got into a boring routine. More and more professionalized official teams, exorbitant costs and a not so demanding route began to distance the adventurers of a lifetime from the test. An attempt was made to rescue the Dakar by transferring the event to Saudi Arabia. The new setting was liked, but something was still missing. Now, finally, the organization seems to have hit the key to recover the great appeal of the Dakar with
category creation Classic, intended for vehicles prior to the year 2000. In last year’s edition a pilot test was carried out in which 24 registrations were reached. It was a resounding success, which caused that number to be multiplied by six this year. At the start of next January 1, in Jeddah, there will be 148 vehicles competing in that class.
A good fault that this category exists today is a Spanish rider. Ignacio Corcuera, better known as ‘Livingstone’, is one of those adventurers whose Dakar began to get too big. “In 2017 I wanted to go to the Dakar with a Volkswagen Iltis, which is the first Dakar-winning car, but we were clashing with the FIA regulations, which no longer allow canvas roofs on off-road vehicles,” he tells ABC. «I wanted to turn the tables and advocated the creation of a category of classics. The issue came to David Castera, current rally director, and he liked the idea. The first thing he asked me is if there were more crazy people like me, and then he started doing numbers. I told him that if there was a Le Mans Classic and a historic Monte Carlo, how could there not be a Dakar Classic. That ended up convincing him ».
The experiment was launched in the middle of the pandemic and almost at the last minute, and yet 23 more ‘crazy’ appeared. For this edition there will already be more classic cars than modern ones. “The organization had been looking for something to revitalize the Dakar for years, and with this measure it has hit the mark”, he explains. Francesc Termens, who will go to the Dakar for the first time with a 1986 Nissan Patrol painted in the same colors with which Miguel Prieto and Ramón Termens, his father, conquered the Rally of the Pharaohs in 1986. «Coming here serves to honor my father . He and Prieto were the first to win a race in Africa with a diesel car. One year after winning the Pharaohs, Prieto and Termens went to the Dakar with another mythical Patrol, the ‘Fanta Limón’, and finished ninth overall. Today a feat like that is out of the reach of any unofficial pilot. One more reason to celebrate the new category. “Either you had a spaceship car and a budget starting at € 300,000 or there was nothing to do,” continues Termens. “As the Dakar progressed in recent years, the possibility of going with a minimally prepared production car was being lost. Today the Dakar is run at full speed and is given priority to buggies, whose cost is over 200,000 euros ”. With the new category, prices are drastically reduced. It is still an expensive adventure, but now it can be done for half the money.
Regularity and navigation
The new wave of riders joining this very special Dakar see many more advantages. “The classics fit very well with the Dakar philosophy,” he says. Luis Heras, co-driver in a 1994 Mercedes G 320 from the Rumbo Zero team. “It has a more adventurous flavor, from the early years, and people like to see these kinds of cars in the race. He gives the test a life that he was losing. All of a sudden he has put 150 teams in, with all that that implies ».
The Dakar Classic It is a regularity raid, which means that the cars must always go at regulated speeds, with tips that do not exceed 130 km / h. They are penalized whether they go faster or slower than the roadbook indicates. In addition, this year navigation will be much more prevalent. “They have introduced sectors in which the co-pilots are only going to have a compass, as in the old days.” As for the route, it runs parallel to the traditional Dakar. Only departure and arrival are shared. “But the 9,000 kilometers you do the same,” says Heras. “We are also in the same camp, and that is another of the things that makes this race unique,” explains Termens. In no other can you share a meal or a while of conversation with the great pilots “,
“We are going back to the Dakar imagined by Thierry Sabine,” concludes Livingstone, who this year changes the Iltis – now a museum piece – for a 1975 Toyota BJ40. “A race for amateurs in which professionals have a place. Seeing these cars compete again is like going back 35 years and being in Mauritania ».
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