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The Dakar starts, a guaranteed show

It cost four francs to register for the 1979 Paris-Dakar rally, the first to be run under this name under the organization of Thierry Sabine. The low cost of participation and the popularity of the organizer enlisted a good number of adventurers and bonvivants of the time in a caravan that unintentionally created a new specialty of motorsports: rally-raids.

Sabine was a versatile lover of motorsports who years before had contested another race in the middle of the desert, in this case between the Ivory Coast and Nice. Immersed in the dispute, he was lost by the Teneré and had to be rescued among the dunes, in what he described as a determining experience for his future. Always crossing those sand traps that endangered his life, he would organize a race for motor demoniacs that with any type of vehicle would start from the esplanade of the Eiffel Tower in Paris to conclude at the Pink Lake near Dakar. An authentic adventure not without risks.

Millionaires, people of dubious trade and all kinds of characters began to come to the claim, although the growing popularity of the event and the beauty of the places it crossed ended up encouraging the main car and motorcycle brands to take part with more and more teams. professionalized and greater technical and economic means. When the Dakar was already a caravan moving a plethora of competitors and publicists, Thierry Sabine lost his life, when his helicopter was engulfed in a sandstorm that ended up disorienting the pilot. There is probably little left of the adventurous spirit with which Sabine organized her first Paris-Dakar, just the solidarity between the participants and the gatherings between professional and amateur pilots around a bonfire, after each day of competition. Abandoned Africa due to security problems, the rally took refuge in South America and seems to have found a definitive accommodation in Saudi Arabia, where it is starting today for the third time.

The competition categories for 2022 could be divided into five: motorcycles, cars, quads, light vehicles and trucks with a multitude of epigraphs that once again divide all of them. In addition to contesting the second edition of the Dakar Classic with the vehicles that made the rally popular in the eighties and nineties. Among them will be Ignacio Corcuera «Livingstone» from Bilbao, brilliant winner of the first edition of the Classic who returns to the event at the wheel of a 1979 Toyota Land Cruiser. Along with the «Livingstone» Toyota there will be a multitude of cars between two and eight wheels that will race to reach Jeddah on January 14. Among them, the Audi that Carlos Sainz will drive to try to win his fourth Dakar has taken center stage. The vehicle stands out for its innovative technology, by mounting an electric motor on each axle that generates propulsion and using a gasoline engine to recharge the batteries of the previous ones. If among the competitors in cars, illustrious Dakarians such as Nani Roma or Nasser Al Attiyah stand out within the Audi team, they have not messed around with little girls and have enrolled Mattias Ekström, Stephan Peterhansel and Carlos Sainz, who can boast of adding seventeen victories in the test.

The Audi RS Q e-tron, as it is called, is a futuristic prototype created expressly for this race and putting it to compete in the Arabian desert poses a challenge for the brand with the four rings. Its reliability is unknown and the publicity impact that is generated will depend on it, although having appeared at the start with three cars and such a roster of drivers has already been a success for Audi. In the case of Sainz, it also constitutes a twist to the maximum requirement that has always been imposed. After having won with Volkswagen, Peugeot and Mini, he faces an uncertain adventure in which he will compete in stages of up to 800 kilometers that will put the value of this electric technology to the test. Stages in which the success of his experienced co-pilot and navigator Lucas Cruz will also be essential, fundamental in the previous successes of the Madrid native.

The car drivers are not the only drivers who polish the level of the participants. Added to the presence of renowned Dakarianos in motorcycles is the participation of Italian Danilo Petrucci, who abandons his MotoGP obligations for a week to face his second Dakar on the back of a KTM. In any case, the popularity of the rally has made it both a point of attention for drivers of all specialties and a test bed for other technologies as innovative as electric. Without going any further, Gaussin’s Gauls will put the first hydrogen-powered racing truck to compete. It is called H2 and it has been designed by Pininfarina, in a preview of the alternative mobility that the organization intends to impose from the Dakar of 2030.// But a lot has to rain until then and for now we can continue to enjoy these crazy people and their crazy people Pots that powered by all kinds of fuels will walk through the wildest areas of the Arabian Peninsula, from today until Friday, January 14. With such ingredients the show is guaranteed, so don’t miss out.

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