Dakar Rally Canceled

[exitspeed]

From Autoblog:

Since 1979, the Dakar Rally has never been canceled. Individual stages have been eliminated, but never the entire rally. This year is marks the end of the run: Dakar organizer ASO have decided to cancel the race in light of terrorist threats from Mauritania. The rally was to run from Lisbon, Portugal to Dakar, Senegal from January 5-20.

Mauritania was formerly a French colony, and the ASO (Amaury Sport Organization, the same folks who put on the Tour de France) is a French organization. It appears that anything French is a target for the time being: on December 28, 2007, four French tourists were murdered in Mauritania by "a branch of Al Qaeda in Islamic Maghreb," and threats have also been made directly against the race.

Eight of the race's fifteen stages were to take place in Mauritania. After being advised not to hold the race by the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the ASO felt it had no choice but to cancel this year's edition. It's regrettable, and a sad day for motorsport, but it had to be done. Follow the jump to read the full press release.

Thanks for the tip, Young!

[Source: BBC]

[Farzam]

Fuck terrorism!

They shoulda just given race contestants guns and shit

[ThatGuy]

Dakar with armored vehicles!
http://img57.imageshack.us/img57/2189/landcougariraqiilavlgps6.jpg
DO IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[exitspeed]

^
DONE! Dakar: Twisted Metal Edition!

[muddafakka]

Dakar with armored vehicles!


Haha that would be awesome.

Really sucks that it got canceled. And yes, fuck terrorism for messing things up.

[ronmcdon]

Damn French need to man up. The death of 4 french tourists by ppl who claim to be 'Al Quaida' doesn't seem to justify the cancellation of the Dakar Rally. These days everyone is claiming or blaming Al Quaida. Who even takes Al Quaida seriously any more? Could have been just a simple mugging gone bad, and then the perpetrators laying blame to AQ

[DOOK]

I say we equip a few vehicles with some of those high speed automatic grenade launchers, a few with some 50 cals with those wicked armor peircing rounds, pull a few inmates off deathrow and tell em have fun taking over the country.

[ThatGuy]

I say we equip a few vehicles with some of those high speed automatic grenade launchers
MK-19 40mm Grenade Launcher
a few with some 50 cals with those wicked armor peircing rounds
Depleted Uranium will work well
pull a few inmates off deathrow and tell em have fun taking over the country.
Since you're already using our toys, just get some US Marines interested in Desert Rally. Offer them liquor at the finish line. :D

[DOOK]

well I would have suggested that before but I didn't want to insinuate that marines were alcoholics, but since you did, ok, we'll just use Marines :D I think the Army uses those MK-19s as well on top of some of their Hummers too don't they Barry? I also wanna equip em with those bullets that are so high velocity they penetrate and suck everything inside out the exit wound... if those are depleted uranium, they are bad.

[Farzam]

Zilvia; Where you learn about cool weapons and 240sx...

[89dc240]

WTF?!?! They better not cancel it indefinitley. It is one of my dreams to race the Dakkar Rally before I die. If it were seriously an option, I'd join the marines to protect the Rally. Shit I'll do it as a civilian if somebody pays for guns, ammo, beer, and food, lol.

[Matej]

That's sad, when I was a kid I used love watching Paris-Dakar and I wanted one of these Tatra race trucks.
http://www.clearlight.com/%7Ebrawicz/tatra_trucks/tatra-dakar3.jpg

They should just do it anyway, it's already a dangerous race to begin with, it'd be fun to watch terrorists trying to catch up with the racers on live broadcast.

[lucky7]

http://softland.com.pl/aerojac/aaa/tatra/tatra.jpg
'all your terror are belong to us.'

[chibo]

Robby Gordon is probably seriously pissed right now after what he went through to get his trucks over there. :rofl:

[HyperTek]

hahah just like americans, send our military to defend something that doesnt directly involve us.. gotta love u guys =p


sucks tho about the cancelation. Hopefully next year they can schedule a different location if its going to be like that. They probably did not have enough time to do so this year since that takes alot of planing. But im not sure if the Dakar rally can actually move locations can it?

[firelizard]

Jeeesus!

Maybe I need to keep up with the world better, but I did not see that coming from Mauritania. Maybe it's because I've worked with Mauritanians, and terrorist plots to ruin rally racing didn't come up.

This sucks.


But im not sure if the Dakar rally can actually move locations can it?

1979–1980: Paris—Dakar
1981–1988: Paris—Algiers (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algiers)—Dakar
1989: Paris—Tunis (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunis)—Dakar
1990–1991: Paris—Tripoli (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tripoli)—Dakar
1992: Paris—Cape Town (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cape_Town)
1993: Paris—Dakar
1994: Paris—Dakar—Paris
1995–1996: Granada (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Granada)—Dakar
1997: Dakar—Agadez (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agadez)—Dakar
1998: Paris—Granada—Dakar
1999: Granada—Dakar
2000: Dakar—Cairo (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cairo)
2001: Paris—Dakar
2002: Arras (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arras)—Madrid (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madrid)—Dakar
2003: Marseille (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marseille)—Sharm el-Sheikh (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sharm_el-Sheikh)
2004: Clermont-Ferrand (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clermont-Ferrand)—Dakar
2005: Barcelona (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barcelona)—Dakar
2006–2007, 2009: Lisbon (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lisbon)—DakarIt has been done. But still. wtf.

[HyperTek]

guess thats another thing Al Qaeda doesnt seem to like- racing

[eastcoastS14]

just run an air strike over the entire course right before the race....or give the drivers shotguns and tell them to run over or shoot any person they see...lol I would love to see a rally car just run the fuck over a suicide bomber....seriously tho terrorism is fuckin lame, I dont get how terrorists would "terrorize" it tho...what r they gonna do? put some dude with a rocket launcher up on a sand dune?

[HyperTek]

yah im not sure hwo they would be threatend over a car race.. i mean once its over, everyone would leave

[azndoc]

It's all fun and games until some terrorist feel like they want to get in on the thing too.

Seriously the world is fucked.

I'm staying home forever and never leaving.

[SimpleS14]

http://www.clearlight.com/%7Ebrawicz/tatra_trucks/tatra-dakar3.jpg


Reminds me of the video game DiRT and that truck has some serious positive camber.

[chibo]

Meh, I ran across these images on my computer earlier.
One of RG's trucks during a shakedown at Glamis earlier this year before it was shipped to run the Dakar.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v180/chibo/RobbyGordonNewCar2.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v180/chibo/RobbyGordonNewCar3.jpg