The worlds greatest rally raid is under way..

Total number of vehicles entered: 465 (+ 15 %) Cars: 171 - Motorcycles: 185 - Quad bikes: 33 - Trucks: 76.

50 nationalities at the race start 11 women have entered the rally (in all categories) First-time competitors: 30 % in the motorcycle and quad bike categories 24 % in the car category
5 million spectators come to watch the 9000km race..



16 raptors (the usual winners) and 5 trx700,s .


How popular is this in the usa as the usa entrys seem a bit thin on the ground?

Why no interest in this?
The worlds greatest rally and the results are in..

Yamaha Raptors dominated again with the quads, getting the top 6 positions and a trx making 7th.

Yamaha had 2/10 for top 10 bikes with ktm taking all the other positions.

Minis won and filled many positions..

USA- Robbie Gordon made 5th comming in 2 1/4 hrs after the winner in his hummer.
That thing is a beast and absolutely flies !

Hi rappey, maybe no interest in the US because no one from the US has won as far as I remember. On 2 wheels Jonah Street and Quinn Cody didn't finish. It was an awesome event, followed it as much as I could.

the coverage in the UK is pretty poor and am not aware of any british drivers- but i watch it for the vehicles, not the drivers so dont care where they come from..
Its things like the awesomeness of a kamaz/iveco or tatra truck tearing past bike and car at god knows what speed.

We have some pretty good coverage because of Fox Sports Latin America, we get an hour daily but it's mostly focused on 2 wheels or cars, quads get like 5 minutes out of the hour. Yeah love to see everyone ripping at 140-160 km/hr on desert roads, beaches, etc. Just crazy!

I really dont know much about Dakar but it looks pretty cool. That mini is badass in the beginning of that video. Sorry for the late response. Didn't see this post before. haha

the dakar originally went from france to dakar in africa.. In 2008 due to many terrorist threats they moved it to south america and this years one went argentina, chile and peru.

Many many vid clips on youtube.

A rider/driver is the sole user of the vehicle, no driver/rider changes and one days stage is similar length of what a rider would do in the baja 1000 (team of 3 changing over the 1000 miles), but in this one they have 14 days of it !

It is not just a test of rider skill but also navigation and mechanical reliabilty.

the winner in the mini has won 6 times previously on bikes and this is his 4th win in a car.

I follow it every year, started five or six years ago. One of the networks does a half hour show the day after the actual stage. This year they showed the quads a bit more. Usually, in the 14 shows, they may talk about the quads in two or three of them. This year they had a few minutes of every show about the quads. I couldn't imagine racing that far on a quad, but would love to give it a try!

I know Dakar bike racer Chris Blais, his best finish was 3rd in 2007. (He broke his back in a motorcycle accident prerunning for the Vegas to Reno race in 2008.) Chris's wife Patty is a quad racer. (Just raced against her a week ago!) I have heard a few stories of Dakar from Chris while sitting out in the desert. I think the one that would worry me the most was need for "ransom insurance"!

Doug

how about peterhansel running over a bike??? has caused a lot of anger amongst the bike world... or Robby being called a cheater... don't know much about the race and its organization, but seems like there was a lot of favoritism this year based on what I have seen and read...

He side swiped a bike that was stuck in the river.
It could be the mini hit a rock which made the mini skip sideways and make contact with the bike? (hypothetical)
A truck took out the back of a mitsibishi and the truck driver was removed from the rally, so they do act..
the tv coverage does not give us enough info to know exactly what hapens on these occasions.
Robbies hummer would have been approved prior to the start so the mods he made were claimed to increase the hp of the vehicle?
the sheer scale of the race would make it very hard to "police" completely but at least only one person died this year which has to be better than the previous events.