As an important part of the car race, off-road racing is loved by many players, and we can often see amazing pictures in off-road events, such as Mitsubishi Motorsport, which has a famous shot of jumping from several floors of mountain rocks, and many people who like dakar racing have seen it.
As the leading position in cross-country events, the Dakar Rally is loved by many off-road fans;
The Dakar Rally has been going through more than 40 years. As the toughest and most adventurous sport in motorsport, the Dakar Rally has been called "the game of the brave" and "the toughest rally in the world".
01
History of the tournament
In 1977, the founder of the Dakar Rally, Zelli Sabine, got lost in the desert and stumbled upon a place suitable for rallying, so he started the rally the following year.
The earliest rally route ran from Paris, France to Dakar, Senegal, only when crossing the Mediterranean Sea, the race was temporarily suspended. In the following three decades, due to often political and other factors, the course of the race (including the starting and finishing points) had to be changed frequently. Early rally races often crossed Algeria.
The official French name for Paris-Dakar is LEDakar, and each year the tournament is titled after the sponsor or regional name.
The event has been widely reported on television, radio, newspapers and magazines in 180 countries and regions around the world, and has received the keen attention of more than 500 million people around the world.
Since its inception in 1979, the Dakar Rally has traveled to Europe, Africa, South America, Asia, the Middle East and other places.
Due to the increase in the number of participants every year, it has become the most famous rally in the world. The Paris-Dakar Rally, staged in africa's Sahara Desert, is a thrilling event every year.
In recent years, with the popularity of the event, many drivers in China have joined the event, such as the sixth-time elders, Chinese car king Lu Ningjun, as well as young drivers such as Zhou Yong and Zhou Yuande.
02
Race route
For about 10 years after the official start of the paris-dakar race, the starting point of the race was set at Paris and the end point in Dakar. However, the course changes slightly every year. Over time, the start and end points also begin to change.
For example, in 1992 it started in Paris, ended in Cape Town, South Africa, in 1994 it was Paris-Dakar-Paris, and in 1997 it was from Dakar, taking Nigeria as the turning point and returning to Dakar.
03
Event characteristics
The Dakar Rally is spread over wide and even endless stretches of the Sahara Desert, the Mauritanian Desert and the savannahs, with virtually no roads available compared to the WRC.
In addition to relying on the organizing committee's road map, the riders and navigators also rely on the compass to today's GPS global positioning system to reach and pass through each assembly point.
Another major feature of Paris-Dakar is that both professionals and amateur racing enthusiasts are free to compete and compete together, and about 80% of the participants in this event are amateurs.
As Thierry Sabine, founder of the Dakar Rally, put it: Paris-Dakar is an attractive rally for amateurs that is attractive to professionals.
The Dakar Rally is free for visitors, and you can watch the race up close if you wish;
This is the top IP, the on-site free viewing can attract many tourists, so Dakar has a great role in pulling the tourism economy of the host area.
04
Tournament rules
Although the name is rally, it is actually an endurance race away from the road. The race takes the approach of interval departures.
But there are only a dozen stages, and each stage is very long, so there will be a grand scene of motorcycles, small vehicles and large trucks driving side by side in one stage.
At the same time, the race side also has very strict rules for the race: the race can not be refueled casually in the middle of the race, once found, it will be judged out; the marathon stage requires the driver to not stop and supply in the middle, and the maintenance team cannot follow the car; strict control of supplies, each driver can only "enjoy" a few sandwiches and a few bottles of mineral water stipulated by the event organizing committee every day, if there is a problem on the way, it means that the driver will run out of water and food.
As a result, dakar's completion rate is very low, and even many drivers and staff have paid the price of their lives for it, and Dakar's founder Zeli Sabine also ended his life on the road to Dakar. This makes Dakar also have the title of "Death Rally" in the folk.
05
Event categories
The race is a multi-vehicle race divided into motorcycle groups, small car groups (including cars and off-road vehicles) and truck groups, and the number of cars begins with 1, 2, and 3 in turn.
The car group was mainly won by Volkswagen, Mitsubishi and Nissan, while the motorcycle group was dominated by Yamaha and KTM. After 2000, the trucking team's battle for supremacy fell back to Duff, Tethella, Mercedes-Benz and Camaz.
Dakar is usually hot and humid, and with the changing weather, deserts, rocks, swamps and more are the most common landscapes on the track.
It is a real contest between man and nature. It is precisely because of this that although the prize money of each championship is not high, it will still attract a large number of players who are not afraid of hardships to participate.
Although it is not the fastest car race in the world, when the cars are racing on the field, the visual sense of that speed brings people a strong enough sense of power to stimulate a lot of adrenaline secretion, so that the spectators feel extremely excited.
If you also love adventure and happen to love off-roading, then this race, don't miss it!