After almost thirty years, the Dakar Rally made a fundamental switch: the course is no longer run on African soil but from 2009 on will take place in South America – in Argentina and Chile to be exact.
History of the Dakar Rally
It all started with Thierry Sabine, a Frenchman who got lost in the Libyan Desert during the Abidjan-Nice rally. The race opened his eyes and he initiated the Paris-Dakar Rally, to "give everybody a chance to tame the desert".
The Dakar Rally is also known as "Paris Dakar", or "Paris to Dakar rally". In 1978 the first race was held from Paris in France to Dakar in Senegal, but due to the unstable political situation in Africa, the rally changed its course. For example, in 2003 it ended in Egypt and in 2006 it started in Lisbon [Portugal]. In 2000, the race never even touched European soil but went from Dakar to Cairo. Whatever the course, this rally has always been known as the foremost endurance race of the world.
