Dakar 2009 in South America?

[EricHerrmannStudios]

While searching for The SCORE Baja 1000 on TV, which I thought was on Discovery tomorrow, I ran across an A/P announcement on ESPN web site stating the 2009 Dakar Rally will be held in South America. Supposedly starting in Buenos Aires. They state it will return to the original location when it is safe to do so. Is this recent news, or has anyone heard differently?

[djhspawn]

news to me.

[bajafox]

http://www.race-dezert.com/forum/showthread.php?t=39817

[Mcarlson1]

I read it on RG's website today

[atpalmer]

Hopefully it will be outside of Buenos Aires, no good race routes in that area. Buenos aires is a metropolitan city with miles and miles of suburbs. Mendoza or Patagonia would be ideal. I'm in Argentina now and no one down here has heard of it, even the 4x4 tour guides.

[Hog Wild]

Hopefully it will be outside of Buenos Aires, no good race routes in that area. Buenos aires is a metropolitan city with miles and miles of suburbs.I would expect a LONG liaison going out of Buenos Aires to get to the start of the first Special. They don't show those sections on TV, but almost every stage begins and ends with a liaison which can be HUNDREDS of miles long, on pavement or very nice dirt roads.

It was a pair of these very long liaison sections (total of about 600 continuous paved miles) that ended our Dakar on stage 3 in 2006. We never tested for 8 hours straight of pavement at 80+ mph. It turned out we had a fatal flaw which only showed up under these conditions.

Leaving Lisbon, an hour into the race, side-by-side on the highway with all the locals who are on their way to work or going shopping:
http://hogwildracing.com/blog/media/1/010_JoaoPulquerio_EasyRider_Liaison.jpg

[Chase 2]

So South America would be much more hack friendly don't you think??? You have thought about it haven't you??? Would you use a whole new chassis for conventional width tyres?

[dustyhusky]

Info on the new rally over at Dakar.com

There is also a brief comment that in the future the rally will go to other continents, implying it wont just be run over and over in South America, but other desert lands on other continents (Australia? Baja? China? India? Namibia?) until its safe to run in North Africa sometime in the future. (search under 'News') Thats the first time i have seen any reference to a 'roving' rally. IMO thats exciting stuff and a great idea.

May 15 is the opening day for registration. I have already sent a Letter of Intent, and called ASO to confirm. Turns out i was the 5th American to do so!

Prices will be close to those in last years rally. Current expectations are for fewer Europeans, and hopefully more Americans. There is a chance some sort of logistical coordination can be worked out, helping racers with group shipping from Europe and North America. Fingers crossed on that one.

Ive probably said more than i should, but hey its only a post from some dude on the internet.

There will be at least 1 Husqvarna at the start of this race. :)

[Hog Wild]

So South America would be much more hack friendly don't you think??? You have thought about it haven't you??? Would you use a whole new chassis for conventional width tyres?I don't know if it would be easier for us or not. There would be less dunes, and possibly none of the super soft sand that's in the Sahara. But the dunes in Argentina are tall as hell, and still moderately wide (20-30 miles). There are also some pretty good dunes in Chile. I would probably stick with our current tires, at least for the sand days. At the moment our front tire is a moderately narrow Mickey Thompson Mini-Mag. The rear is still a BFG Mud Terrain, though I want to test the All Terrain on the next ride. The side will probably stay a Michelin M4 Rally, as it's bullet proof. I wouldn’t change the chassis at all, even if we went with narrow tires. We’ve got too many miles of good testing on this chassis and all the bugs seem to be worked out finally. It ain’t broke, so …

There might be worse river crossings in South America than Africa, though that could be an advantage for us compared to 2-wheelers (more stability and higher air intake). And there are potentially very narrow rocky llama trails over the Andes if they make a separate route for bikes from the cars. Narrow isn’t sidecar friendly. I think they had that planned for 2008 for one or two stages. So, we'll just have to head down there and find out how hard it is! That's our plan, though we have two pretty big obstacles to overcome first.

[Baja Fool]

Here is the post from Robby Gordon's website:

Argentina, Chile to host 2009 Dakar Rally





PARIS (AFP) — Argentina and Chile will host the 2009 Dakar Rally between January 3-18 with Buenos Aires as the start and finish city, organisers said Monday.
The move comes after the 2008 edition of the event was cancelled for the first time since its inception in 1979 due to security concerns after four French tourists were murdered in Mauritania on December 24.

The 2009 rally will feature 6,000km of special stages over a 9,000km-long course, details of which are set to be unveiled in Buenos Aires on Tuesday.

"Signing-up priority will be given to the Dakar 2008 competitors," said Etienne Lavigne, director of the Dakar Rally.

Competitors will be able to sign up for the South American adventure from May 15, and for those coming from Europe vehicle shipping by boat will be done at end of November-early December, the trans-Atlantic crossing lasting three weeks.

Dominique Serieys, head of Mitsubishi Motorsport, the sporting subsidiary of the Japanese manufacturer unbeaten on the Dakar since 2001, said the announcement that the 2009 edition would go ahead in South America was timely.

"It's good news, one month after the cancellation of the 2008 rally," Serieys told AFP.

"I leave at the end of the week for Japan to present the new project and Mitsuibishi will announce its decision at end of February-beginning March. In principle we're very interested.

"We know the quality of the organisation of ASO (Amaury Sport Organisation, Dakar organisers) and the media attention given to the event.

"It was necessary to take a break in Africa given the geopolitical context there. The fact the resumption is on a new continent is good news."

Serieys predicted that any rally in South America would not be a "walk in the park".

"We've already taken part in the Atacama Rally and the Las Pampas Rally. Chile and Argentina are countries where there are great varieties of terrain.

"The Atacama desert is very difficult. There are enormous dunes, real mountains more difficult to cross than in the Dakar.

"There will also be nice roads and dried lakes to cross, navigation and the Andes are another delicate terrain.

"All of that - bearing in mind we don't know the details of Dakar 2009 - makes for a very difficult course. But that's great, we want a testing course."

[Baja Fool]

Here is the post from Robby Gordon's website:

Argentina, Chile to host 2009 Dakar Rally





PARIS (AFP) — Argentina and Chile will host the 2009 Dakar Rally between January 3-18 with Buenos Aires as the start and finish city, organisers said Monday.
The move comes after the 2008 edition of the event was cancelled for the first time since its inception in 1979 due to security concerns after four French tourists were murdered in Mauritania on December 24.

The 2009 rally will feature 6,000km of special stages over a 9,000km-long course, details of which are set to be unveiled in Buenos Aires on Tuesday.

"Signing-up priority will be given to the Dakar 2008 competitors," said Etienne Lavigne, director of the Dakar Rally.

Competitors will be able to sign up for the South American adventure from May 15, and for those coming from Europe vehicle shipping by boat will be done at end of November-early December, the trans-Atlantic crossing lasting three weeks.

Dominique Serieys, head of Mitsubishi Motorsport, the sporting subsidiary of the Japanese manufacturer unbeaten on the Dakar since 2001, said the announcement that the 2009 edition would go ahead in South America was timely.

"It's good news, one month after the cancellation of the 2008 rally," Serieys told AFP.

"I leave at the end of the week for Japan to present the new project and Mitsuibishi will announce its decision at end of February-beginning March. In principle we're very interested.

"We know the quality of the organisation of ASO (Amaury Sport Organisation, Dakar organisers) and the media attention given to the event.

"It was necessary to take a break in Africa given the geopolitical context there. The fact the resumption is on a new continent is good news."

Serieys predicted that any rally in South America would not be a "walk in the park".

"We've already taken part in the Atacama Rally and the Las Pampas Rally. Chile and Argentina are countries where there are great varieties of terrain.

"The Atacama desert is very difficult. There are enormous dunes, real mountains more difficult to cross than in the Dakar.

"There will also be nice roads and dried lakes to cross, navigation and the Andes are another delicate terrain.

"All of that - bearing in mind we don't know the details of Dakar 2009 - makes for a very difficult course. But that's great, we want a testing course."

[DSRacing]

Found this map showing a preliminary route for next year.

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y9/DSRanger/0194190B.jpg

[dustyhusky]

Thanks for posting the map.

Brings back memories. Day 6-7 (Mendoza to Valpariso) is really something. Napa Valley then up over the Himalayas and down to Ensenada...all in 8 hours. That pass must be at least 10,000ft...