the site continues the series of materials dedicated to the 40th anniversary of the Dakar. In the previous issue we met the most titled drivers of the main rally raid on the planet, and now it’s time to find out about the most successful teams...

MINI

The British automaker is tied with brands such as Citroen and Volkswagen for the number of wins. All three companies have won the Dakar SUV category four times. But if VW and “Double Chevrons” won three times in a row, then MINI’s winning streak turned out to be a little longer, and their percentage of Dakars won was higher.

Having made its debut in collaboration with the German racing team X-Raid in 2011, the following year MINI celebrated its first success together with the legendary Stephane Peterhansel. The departure of Volkswagen, which won all three of the first Dakars in South America, definitely played a role in this. But to its credit, the MINI ALL4 Racing SUV, based on the MINI John Cooper Works Countryman, is very fast, efficient and reliable. All five cars not only reached the finish line, but also ended up in the top 10.

In 2013, Peterhansel was able to repeat his success and again climbed to the top of the podium, while Russian rider Leonid Novitsky and Nani Roma finished in third and fourth places.

But the most successful for MINI was Dakar 2014. 11 ALL4 Racing cars took to the start line in Rosario, Argentina, and after 14 days all of them arrived safely at the finish line in Chilean Valparaiso, including seven cars in the top ten. X-Raid's advantage was so overwhelming that they allowed themselves to play with team tactics, ultimately confusing the racers and fans. Nani Roma was pushed to victory in every possible way, but even when Peterhansel deliberately slowed down, the winner of the 2004 race was unable to take the lead. Only a complete deliberate stop of the Frenchman on the penultimate day allowed the Spaniard to lead the overall classification and remain ahead until the finish.

MINI won its fourth and currently last victory at the Dakar in 2015 together with Qatari Nasser Al-Attiyah. Peterhansel joined the new Peugeot project, which was not at all surprising after all the events in the previous race, and the following year put an end to the dominance of his former team.

MINI was unable to compete with the French Lions at the last two Dakars and in 2018, in the hope of challenging, together with the Mini John Cooper Works Rally updated last year, it will field three buggies. So, X-Raid will be fully prepared for the 40th anniversary rally-raid.

Peugeot

The history of Peugeot's performances at the Dakar goes back less than ten years and now the second four-year period is coming to an end, after which the French Lions will leave the main rally raid for the second time since 1990. But what a story it is!

Having switched from the WRC to the Dakar after the closure of Group B, Peugeot, under the leadership of Jean Todt, immediately and against all odds won. At the very start - a short prologue - the team's main hope, Ari Vatanen, crashed his 205 Turbo 16 car and fell back to 274th place in the overall standings. But the Finn did not give up, made up for lost time and was the first to arrive at the finish line at Pink Lake after 13,000 kilometers.
Vatanen had every chance to defend the title of the reigning winner in 1988 and was in the lead for 2/3 of the distance, and then, after the 13th of 19 stages, the unexpected happened. No, he didn’t have an accident, he wasn’t let down by an offensive technical breakdown. While spending the night in the capital of Mali, Bamako, his Peugeot 405 T16 was stolen! The car was found, but too late and after a series of protests from his rivals, Vatanen was forced to withdraw from the race. Not everyone believed the hijacking version back then, and disputes remain to this day. There is a version that there was no theft, and Peugeot pulled this trick on the car in order to fix a faulty engine, the repair of which was not enough in the allotted time limit. But the victory still went to Peugeot - another Finnish WRC champion, Juha Kankunen, won.

Ari bounced back at the next two Dakars, but to say that these victories were easy for him is to say nothing. In 1989, the Finn fought so desperately with his teammate Jacqui Ickx that Peugeot decided to determine the winner with a simple coin toss and avoid a dramatic outcome of this duel. As you understand, luck was on Vatanen’s side, including during the further part of the distance, when he turned over twice. Despite all the problems - the co-driver's broken compass and a hole in the body after a collision with a tree - the Finn also won the 1990 Dakar and brought Peugeot a fourth victory out of four possible. On this high note, the French automaker left the famous rally-raid and returned only 25 years later, when the race had already moved to South America.

There was no triumphant return in 2015. The 2008 DKR16 machine turned out to be crude, and the best representative of Peugeot, Stéphane Peterhansel, ended up only in 11th place, while the five-time winner in the motorcycle category Cyril Despres finished his debut Dakar at the wheel of an SUV only in 34th position, and Carlos Sainz retired after coup. For the French Lions, this was the first and so far only defeat. Having seriously worked on the mistakes, the company introduced the new model 2008 DKR, driving which Peterhansel added two more victories in the next two years, WRC legend Sebastien Loeb fought for victory in both editions of the rally raid, and Despres climbed to the podium in 2017. m.

The upcoming Dakar will be Peugeot's last. Once again, just like 25 years ago, at the end of the four-year period, the French brand is leaving. The PSA Group, unfortunately, decided to redistribute resources and focus on rallycross.

It will be a matter of honor for Peugeot to win the bye and take the ninth out of ten victories.

KTM

How important is the role of the team when the participant overcomes all 10 thousand kilometers of a grueling and difficult race on a motorcycle, without the help of a navigator and almost completely alone on the track, not counting the support of the “water carrier” and rivals in the form of landmarks? You only have to look at KTM's history to find the answer to this question. The Austrian motorcycle manufacturer has been participating in the Dakar since 1994 and has won 16 victories in a row over these 23 years.

From 2001 to this day, KTM has been invincible, and for two years in a row - in 2002 and 2003 - it won all the special stages. No matter how hard Honda, Sherco, Husqvarna or any other brand tries, they cannot boast of such numbers, reliability of equipment and skill of riders. A few years ago, when Marc Coma and Cyril Despres retired from the motorcycle class, having won ten Dakars in a row between them, it seemed that KTM’s winning streak would finally be broken. But no. Just like KAMAZ-Master, well-prepared and talented young people came: Australian Toby Price won in 2016, and Briton Sam Sunderland won in 2017.

Can KTM claim a record 17th consecutive victory?

Mitsubishi

In the entire history of the Dakar, only one manufacturer has managed to win in the SUV category more than ten times and no one else - not Citroen, Volkswagen, MINI or even Peugeot - has such a long and successful series as Mitsubishi. For 25 years, the Japanese company, with its flagship Pajero car, nicknamed the “King of the Desert,” has been giving its rivals a hard time, winning 12 times.

The first success came at the third Dakar for Mitsubishi in 1985, when the Frenchman Patrick Zaniroli won for the first and only time in his entire career.

The Japanese had to wait seven whole years for their next triumph. Peugeot was too strong in the second half of the 80s, and rivals from Porsche and Citroen did not miss their chance. But the wait was worth it.

In the 1992 race, three crews led by Hubert Auriol arrived at the finish line at Lake Rose in the first three places. Another triumph came the next year - Bruno Sabie won.

Mitsubishi staged a real rout of its competitors in 1997. Six Pajero cars finished in the top ten, taking four first places led by Kenjiro Shinozuka, who became the first Japanese driver to conquer the Dakar.

In 1998, the Mitsubishi quartet again had no equal. It's no joke - Jean-Louis Schlesser, who finished fifth in a buggy named after himself, lost eight hours to the winner Jean-Pierre Fontani, about two hours to the second Shinozuka and the third-place winner Sabi. The Frenchman lost even to his closest competitor Hiroshi Masuoka for almost two hours.

However, this was only a harbinger of dominance, the likes of which the SUV category has never seen before or since.

For seven years in a row - from 2001 to 2007 - the “King of the Desert” invariably finished first, including under the control of the German racer Utah Kleinschmidt, with whose victory, in fact, this series began.

Mitsubishi achieved its main success at the Dakar in 2002, taking the first eight (!) places at the end of the race.

In 2008, the rally raid was canceled at the very last moment, and when the race moved to South America, the Japanese concern replaced the Pajero with a Lancer. The new car turned out to be damp, and out of four crews, only one made it to the finish line, and only in tenth place. Then a few weeks later, Mitsubishi announced that it was winding down its rally-raid program. Like Honda and Toyota in F1, Subaru in WRC, Suzuki and Kawasaki in MotoGP, the 12-time Dakar winner had to reallocate resources amid the global crisis.

Several years ago, in 2015, during a visit to Moscow, Hiroshi Masuoka, who continues to work at Mitsubishi Motors, admitted the possibility of the Three Diamonds returning to the Dakar, but the talk has not gone further...

KAMAZ-Master

The history of Dakar is unthinkable without KAMAZ-Master. For almost 28 years of performances, the “Blue Armada” has become a symbol of the classification of trucks of the main rally raid on the planet. Until the era of the Russian team, which debuted in 1990, the heavyweight category did not know such a formidable force. Mercedes (five victories 1982-1986, Tatra (1988, 1994, 1995, 1998, 1999, 2001) and the little-known Italian company Perlini (1990-1993) dominated in their time, but cannot boast of such a rich and long history of success. In this In terms of KAMAZ, it can only compete with KTM in the motorcycle class.

Two years after its founding in 1988, the team from Naberezhnye Chelny made its debut at the Dakar, and already in 1991 it took two places on the podium with Vladimir Goltsev and the Estonian Yoel Tammeki, losing only to the Frenchman Jacques Hussa on Perlini. At the same time, all five KAMAZ vehicles reached the finish line, which no one else managed in the truck category that year.

The first victory came in 1996, when, a few tens of meters before the finish, Viktor Moskovskikh, on a sharp sandy turn, overtook the then three-time Dakar winner, the Czech Karel Loprais in a Tatra, and thus put an end to the dispute for first place. But the dominance of the “Blue Armada” began a few years later, when the once former mechanic Vladimir Chagin, in a confrontation with the same Loprais, won the Dakar 2000 race, and two years later began a series of victories that lasted until 2005, when the second took the initiative KAMAZ-Master driver Firdaus Kabirov.

So they exchanged positions at the top of the podium until the end of their racing careers in 2011, having won eight out of nine Dakars between them since 2002 (the canceled rally raid in 2008 does not count).

During this time, only the race in 2007 did not submit to the KAMAZ drivers, but this is how the circumstances developed - at the fifth stage, the leader Chagin had a serious accident, colliding in the dust at a speed of 100-110 km/h with a three-meter pile of stones and turning over several times. There were no tragic consequences, but even now, when you look at photographs of what is left of the truck, your heart skips a beat.

Chagin received a concussion, navigator Semyon Yakubov broke his arm, and mechanic Sergei Savostin received a compression fracture of a vertebra. Kabirov’s crew took over the evacuation of the wrecked cars; Sergei Reshetnikov also did not abandon his comrades and lost an hour and a half, stopping at the scene of the accident. Only the “fast technical” of Ilgizar Mardeev remained on the track, who could not compete for victory, but finished second.

The second defeat occurred in 2012, when KAMAZ-Master completely changed its lineup, and the burden of responsibility fell on the shoulders of the younger generation of racers. The transitional Dakar turned out to be difficult - for the first time in 11 years, not a single rider from Naberezhnye Chelny was on the podium. But the very next year, KAMAZ returned to its rightful position and began a new winning streak: Eduard Nikolaev won in 2013, Andrey Karginov in 2014, and Ayrat Mardeev in 2015. Moreover, in 2015, KAMAZ-Master drivers occupied the entire podium.

In 2016, there seemed to be no signs of failure, but all KAMAZ crews sorely lacked stability and speed. As a result, the Dutchman Gerard de Rooy won a landslide victory for Iveco, and Mardeev, who finished second, became the only representative of the Blue Armada in the top five.

“It’s okay, next year we’ll be angrier, we’ll get ours back,” Airat said then, and he turned out to be right.

Mardeev Jr. himself, due to problems in the sand and the lost two hours, could not win back, but Nikolaev and Sotnikov brought KAMAZ-Master a victorious double.

Thus, over 21 years, the Russian team has won 14 victories at the Dakar, 12 of them since 2002. Impressive statistics.

Next year KAMAZ-Master celebrates 30 years since its founding. It would be nice to win the 15th Victoria on such an anniversary. On the one hand, it should be easier than in previous years, given that Gerard de Rooy and his team chose to go on the Africa Eco Race. But you shouldn’t write off such rivals as Renault, Tatra, MAZ and other racers driving Iveco cars.

The Dakar is a difficult and unpredictable race, and not a single one of the 14 victories was easy for KAMAZ...

Follow the news of the most famous race on the planet on our website.

Paris-Dakar is probably the most prestigious rally, in which four types of vehicles participate: motorcycles, cars, trucks and ATVs. And victories in it are also very prestigious, and also bright and memorable, because they are always achieved as a result of persistent struggle.

When the race just began, motorcycles and cars were not separated - they went in the general classification. And it so happened that in 1978 the entire podium was occupied by motorcyclists. Winners:

• 1st place - Cyril Neve (Yamaha 500 XT motorcycle);
• 2nd place - Gilles Comte (Yamaha motorcycle);
• 3rd place - Philip Vassar (Honda motorcycle).

For Cyril Neve, this victory was especially dear because it was the fruit of a family journey: his father provided technical support, his brother also participated in the race. The following year, Neve again became the winner, but lost his position in 1980, changing his motorcycle - Honda did not bring him luck; Hubert Auriol became the winner of the 1981 rally. In 1982, Cyril returned to the podium, then led and lost, but could not give up racing for many years.

The winners of the Paris-Dakar rally became known throughout the world; their successes and ups and downs of the struggle were followed with special attention, rejoicing for their favorite athletes and teams and being sad with them.

Truck Winners

Probably the most exciting part of the famous rally has always been the truck racing. The track, laid out virtually off-road, like Paris-Dakar, gives trucks the opportunity to show their strengths to the fullest. The first winner among the heavyweights of the Dakar in 1980 was the Algerian team at Sonacome. And the first record for the number of victories was set by the Mercedes-Benz teams, which were in first place for five years - from 1982 to 1986. Having won its first victory in 1988, Tatra then became the winner five more times, still being one of the leaders. The Perlini team won four victories in a row (1990–1993), but it never came out on top again.

And since 1996, the victories of KAMAZ-Master, the Russian team that has won the champion title 12 times, begin. Our athletes simply have no equal in desert and off-road racing. Their victories are largely explained by the fact that the team members design and assemble the vehicles themselves, test them themselves, and know all the features of each truck. Winners of not only Paris-Dakar, but also many other races, they became legends of world motorsport.

Dakar winning teams (first places):

• KAMAZ - 12 victories;
• Tatra - 6 wins;
• Mercedes-Benz - 5 wins;
• Perlini - 4 wins;
• Sonacome, ALM/ACMAT, DAF, Hino, MAN, Iveco have so far won one victory each.

540 teams began in 2009 (from January 3 to 17) the two-week Dakar Rally: Buenos Aires (Argentina) - Valparaiso (Chile). They had to cover 9,578 kilometers (14 stages) off-road. The Dakar Rally (formerly known as the Paris-Dakar Rally) is an annual transcontinental race founded by French motorcyclist Thierry Sabine in 1978. Cars weighing less than 3,500 kilograms are allowed to participate in the race, which are divided into three categories: T1 (advanced SUVs), T2 (production SUVs), Open (all others).
The distance that athletes must cover in the shortest time is divided into separate sections. In addition, the Dakar Rally hosts races on motorcycles, ATVs, and small trucks (all of which are also divided into categories).
Each participant is given a GPS navigation device, which will be used to determine his location in an emergency (it is prohibited to use it for navigation, otherwise the participant will be removed from the race).
Due to fear of possible terrorist attacks, it was decided to hold the rally in South America.
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Carlos Sainz driving a Volkswagen Race Touareg 2 is a famous Spanish racing driver, two-time champion world champion, four-time world vice-champion, five-time “bronze medalist” of the world championship, as well as the winner of the 2010 Dakar rally.

Photo taken while on vacation in Valparaiso, Chile.

Cyril Despres from France at a gas station during the eighth stage of the Dakar Rally.

Robbin Gordon (USA) in his Hummer. The eighth stage of the race, between Valparaiso and La Serena, Chile.

The leading motorcyclist of the Dakar Rally, who already has 419 kilometers of travel behind him.

Clouds shroud the Andes Mountains, South America.

Giacomo Vismara (Italy), a car racing participant, has already driven 797 kilometers in his Mercedes.

Cyril Despres (France) between Valparaiso and La Serena, Chile.

Stephane Peterhansel is a French motorcycle and racing driver. In the photo he is during the third stage of the rally in a Mitsubishi SUV.

Gerard Farres Guell from Spain on his KTM motorcycle during the fourth stage of the motor racing, Argentina.

Russians Leonid Novitsky and his co-driver Oleg Tyupenkin in a BMW at the latest Dakar 2009 rally, 180 kilometers southwest of Buenos Aires.

A French motorcyclist on the first stage of the Dakar Rally, between Buenos Aires and Santa Rosa, fell from his motorcycle and was left lying on the ground while cars carrying other race participants rushed past him.

French competitor, David Casteu, rides his KTM motorcycle during the first stage of the rally between Buenos Aires and Santa Rosa de La Pampa, Argentina.

A rally participant speeds past a duck with ducklings on his motorcycle during the fifth stage of the auto racing.

French racing driver Jean-Louis Schlesser during the 11th stage in his sports car. Jean-Louis is a two-time winner of the Paris-Dakar rally.

Spaniard Carlos Sainz tries to keep his Volkswagen on the track during the fourth stage of the 2009 Dakar.

Robbie Gordon of the United States takes off in his Hummer during the sixth stage of the 2009 Dakar Rally, between San Rafael and Mendoza, Argentina, on January 8, 2009.

Motorcyclist David Casteu (France) shows where he was stung by a bee during the third stage of the Dakar Rally, Argentina.

Marc Coma (Spanish) on a KTM motorcycle overcomes the sixth stage of the auto race between San Rafael and Mendoza, Argentina.

Frenchman Erica Vigouroux drives his Hummer during the second stage of the race, between Santa Rosa de La Pampa and Puerto Madryn, Argentina.

Two riders tackle the dunes during the sixth stage of the 2009 Dakar Rally, between San Rafael and Mendoza.

Spaniard Juan Manuel Pellicer on a BMW motorcycle during the seventh stage (he has already covered 899 kilometers).

Mechanics repair the motorcycle of one of the participants in the race at the end of the fifth stage of the annual race.

Spaniard Nani Roma's Mitsubishi is inspected by mechanics for damage in Valparaiso, Chile, at the end of the seventh round of racing.

French rider Pascal Gilbert speaks on the phone about the death of friend and teammate Pascal Terry (49 years old), who disappeared after the second stage of the Dakar circuit and was later found dead (pulmonary edema).

Qatar Saleh Nasser Al-Attiyah and his co-driver Tina Thorner have already traveled 488 kilometers in their BMW.

Spaniard Marc Coma on his KTM motorcycle finishes the sixth stage of the rally, which took place between San Rafael and Mendoza, Argentina.

Mark Miller's Volkswagen from the USA takes a sharp turn during the eighth stage of the race, between Valparaiso and La Serena, Chile.

Frenchman Luc Pagnon crosses a water obstacle on his KTM motorcycle during the third stage of the rally, Argentina.

Spaniard Marc Coma on the sixth stage of the Dakar 2009, from San Rafael to Mendoza.

The first ever ultramarathon race from France to Senegal - rally "Paris-Dakar"- launched on December 26, 1978. The initiator of the first rallies was the French motorcycle racer Thierry Sabin, whose adventures began back in 1977, when he got lost on his motorcycle in the Libyan desert while participating in the Abidjan-Nice Rally.

Sometimes it seems that France has a hand (leg, heart...) in almost any high-profile event, any high-profile premiere taking place not only in Europe, but throughout the world. And the Paris-Dakar Rally is only proof of this. It starts in the heart of France - Paris. The author and founding father is French. For a long time, the French were the champions, or certainly contenders for the title. Few? Read on...

The first ever ultramarathon race from France to Senegal - the Paris-Dakar rally- launched on December 26, 1978. The initiator of the first rallies was the French motorcycle racer Thierry Sabin, whose adventures began back in 1977, when he got lost on his motorcycle in the Libyan desert while participating in the Abidjan-Nice Rally. He was accidentally found in complete exhaustion by nomads. Rescued by Thierry Sabine, he returned to France deeply affected by what had happened and impressed by the fantastic desert landscape. He promised himself that he would share this journey with as many people as possible. Thierry Sabin created a complex road route from Europe to Africa; the path began in Paris and ended at the former residence of the French governor-general in the west of the black continent, i.e. according to Sabin's plan, the route from Europe went to Algeria and then, ultimately, brought the participants to Dakar. His plan quickly came to fruition. But if at first the race route always passed through Algeria, then since 1989, due to the difficult internal political situation in this country, the rally organizers were forced to prepare routes through Morocco or Libya.

But how was it then? 80 motorcyclists, 90 crews in cars and 12 in trucks, for a total of 182 participants, took to the start of the race. The tests began with a 4-kilometer prologue near a military camp in the vicinity of Orleans. The total length of the route was 8,500 kilometers, of which 3,169 kilometers were in 8 special stages. The participants had to cover the most kilometers on the second day - 2,370 kilometers from Algeria to Tamanrasset, but the longest special stage - 834 kilometers - was on the way from Tamanrasset to Agadez. January 8, 1979 was the only day of rest in Goa.

The test was very serious for everyone! The fact is that in those days practically no one had assistance, and even if there was technical support, they had a minimal amount of spare parts. The racers took part practically without special uniforms; today we can say that in those days the preparation for the races, as well as the equipment, were primitive. However, a third of the starting participants reached Dakar on January 14 - 74 participants.

Of all the participants in the first marathon, Martina de Cortans deserves special mention as the first woman to finish on a motorcycle. By the way, 7 women took to the start of the race!

In the first Paris-Dakar race there was no separate classification, as now (motorcycles, cars and trucks), and therefore the unknown Frenchman Cyril Neve on his Yamaha 500XT motorcycle became the only winner of the first transatlantic marathon. And although Neva was up against very serious rivals, including Gilles Comte, who had factory support from Yamaha, he did not miss his chance. It is noteworthy that Cyril Neve won the first Dakar without winning a single special stage.

The now three-week route, starting in France, passes through Spain, Morocco, Mauritania, Mali, Burkina Faso, Western Sahara and finishes in Senegal. Moreover, you can participate in voluntary torture in any car: a car, a truck, a motorcycle, an ATV. The length of the route, passing through savannas and mountain passes, deserts and jungles, is approximately ten thousand kilometers.

The motto of the marathon: "A fight for the participants. A dream for the spectators."

The Paris-Dakar Rally starts every year on New Year's Eve. At first, the rally was one of the stages of the World Cup of Cross-Country Rallies. However, due to disagreements in technical regulations, the marathon rally was removed from the World Cup, while remaining the most prestigious competition.

182 crews took part in the first Dakar, of which 74 finished. Every year the number of rally participants is steadily increasing. The most attractive thing about Paris-Dakar, according to the participants, is the real and unimaginary difficulties that will have to be overcome on the way to Dakar. Over the years, along with professional racers, rock star Johnny Hallyday, three-time world champion in alpine skiing Luc Alphand, famous yachtsman Laurent Bourgnon, two-time world champion in rock climbing Isabelle Patissier and other celebrities took to the track.

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As you know, the Dakar is open to almost anyone, not even athletes, but simply amateurs looking for adventure. And here, as they say, who knows what. There are eccentrics who, as before, drive absolutely production cars, only equipped with the necessary minimum from a safety point of view - a frame, seats with seat belts, a fire extinguishing system, that's basically all. But those who want to get closer to the leaders, at least in technical terms, are looking for more serious equipment. And in the developed not only economic, automotive, but also motorsport world there are a lot of companies at their service.

The Paris-Dakar Rally also has many tragic deaths of riders: At the 1982 Dakar, Mark Thatcher, the son of English Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, went missing for 6 days along with his co-driver Charlotte Verney and a mechanic. During a large-scale search operation, their white Peugeot 504 was spotted by an Algerian military aircraft 50 km away from the rally route. Thatcher, Verney and the mechanic were not injured. The Dakar 1986 rally-raid went down in history because on January 14, Dakar founder Thierry Sabin and four other people died in a helicopter crash. In general, in the entire history of the desert marathon, 50 people have already died, including 24 athlete.

In 2008, the Dakar automobile marathon would have turned thirty years old. During this time, about 13,500 people managed to take part in it, and during all 29 receptions they traveled through the territory of 21 countries. The last time, in 2007, the race was watched by more than 1 million spectators in Portugal alone. In 2008, for the first time in the history of Dakar, the competition was canceled, due to the threat of terrorist attacks,

Let's look at some more statistics:

The race route (in global terms) has changed more than once. Until 1988 inclusive, participants followed the route France (Paris) - Algeria - Senegal (Dakar). In 1988, 603 teams took part in the race, a record that stood until 2005. In 1989, for political reasons, the race bypassed Algeria through Libya and Tunisia. In 1990, Tunisia was dispensed with - the participants were transported from France directly to Tripoli. In 1991 the route of the previous year was repeated.

In 1992, for the first time since its inception, the race passed through the whole of Africa from north to south and finished not in Dakar, but in Cape Town, South Africa. In 1994, the race was made looped for the first time - Paris-Dakar-Paris. In 1995, the rally was started for the first time not from Paris, but from Grenada, Spain. In 1996 they repeated the same option.

In 1997, rally participants concentrated on the African continent. The race took place along a circular route from Senegalese Dakar to Niger and back.

In 2000 there was one of the most “adventurous” (in the negative sense of the word) Dakars. The race took place from West to East Africa along the Dakar-Cairo route. But upon arrival in Niger, threats of a terrorist attack were received against the rally participants. At first, it was decided to take an unplanned 5-day break, and then the race organizers decided not to take risks, and as a result, almost all of Niger, all the race participants and their vehicles were transported by plane - a giant An-124 was used for this. The spectacular finish of the rally-raid was arranged at the foot of the great Egyptian pyramids. The 2000 rally was the second race in Dakar history to not finish in Dakar itself.

It is interesting that earlier the official newspaper of the Vatican, L’Osservatore Romano, criticized the rally; according to the newspaper, the Dakar is a bloody and irresponsible race. Vatican officials said that “the Dakar Rally has nothing to do with healthy competition. It leaves behind a trail of blood that underscores the violent element underlying any attempt to export the Western way of life to the East...

Well, in 2013 we will see 35th Dakar Rally, which starts 5 January. Participants will face a difficult race: in 15 days they will cover more than 8,000 km from Lima (Peru) to Santiago (Chile). The Dakar Rally champion will be announced on January 20, 2013 after 14 stages and 4,100 km of special stages of increased difficulty.

And finally, stunning video trailer "Dakar Rally 2013"

Three small stories, without which the Dakar marathon would not have happened

Five hundred and fifty-six participants will take to the Dakar tracks this year, and about five million spectators are going to watch it live.
But none of this would have been possible without one enterprising sweet potato exporter from Africa, a motorcyclist lost in the dunes of the Sahara. and three short but very important stories.

At the beginning of the twentieth century, Dakar was one of the centers of French colonial West Africa - a deputy even tried to be elected to the French parliament from here. And when the local republics became independent, Dakar remained an attractive piece of exoticism, where local residents continued to speak the language of Voltaire and Rousseau as if it were their native language.

From coast to coast

The romance of adventure, deserts, elephants and dunes prompted the planter and exporter of sweet potatoes and wood, Jean-Claude Bertrand, who knew Africa well, to organize a car race in Côte d'Ivoire in 1969 - the Bandama Rally! Based on the name of a local river.

Jean-Claude Bertrand's next grandiose project was to organize an annual marathon on each of the five continents in turn, but this idea turned out to be too large-scale from a logistics point of view.
Extending the route from the former French colony to its metropolis was incomparably easier. And most importantly, without suspecting it, Bertrand came up with a new format of rally-raid - the prototype of the future “Paris-Dakar”. In addition, a man who was destined to glorify the race on African sands throughout the world was already at the start of the second Abidjan-Nice marathon.

Lone Hero

The sun, the unbearable heat and the endless yellowing horizon, the whole world now seemed to consist only of sand. Nature itself played with him like a cat and a mouse, squeezing out the last vital juices. Three days ago, Thierry Sabine, a participant in the Cote d'Ivoire - Cote d'Azur marathon, got lost in the desert and had to come to terms with the fact that there was no more hope.

Having started competing with his father Gilbert in rallies, he immediately began to fight for victories and luck has not yet left him. When he tried his hand at endurance racing, he won the Six Hours of Spa and finished at Le Mans. When I decided to organize a motorcycle beach race to shake up the resort town of Le Touquet in winter, it turned out to be a competition that every French motorcycle racer knows today.

And now the final point of this story has come - Sabin got lost on a motorcycle in the Abidjan - Nice race. La Fin. Dimming the screen. End!

The motorcycle, which had become useless, lay somewhere between the Tenere desert and Libya, in a place with the terrible name “Black Mountain,” and Thierry Sabine was slowly dying without strength and water, until the pilot of a small plane sent by Jean-Claude Bertrand descended from the skies to him. search for the missing participant.

Winner takes all

The first Dakar was created like a family party: a handful of assistants, a few friends, wife, model Diane Thierry-Meg, and a sponsor - the fruit juice manufacturer Oasis. Knowing a lot about how to make the right impression, Sabin managed to work as a press secretary for the Le Corbier resort and the musical group “Il etait une fois”, the Frenchman turned the familiar world of auto racing upside down.

The start of the new rally-raid took place not in some Abidjan familiar only to bores and geography teachers, but with noise and pomp in the center of Paris on Trocadéro Square, opposite the Eiffel Tower. Finished the marathon after 10,000 kilometers in the resort town of Dakar - the capital of Senegal and the westernmost point of the African continent.

Among the participants there is anything from cars to trucks and without any division into tests. As a member of the Abba group sang then: “The Winner Takes It All” - the winner takes it all. Moreover, the most popular and fastest class immediately became motorcyclists, between whom a hot struggle for victory ensued.

By the sixth special stage of the 1978 race, Patrick Schaal was in the lead, but he broke his little finger after an unfortunate fall. Two hundred kilometers before the end of the race, the engine of Jean-Claude Morellet's motorcycle failed and the first, having curiously slipped on the finishing ramp, was Cyril Neveu, who did not win a single special stage during the marathon.

Just ten years later, “Paris - Dakar” already hosted 473 participants at the start and least of all resembled a family adventure. Medical and television helicopters circled in the air, equipment was transported between bivouacs on transport aircraft, broadcasts covered the whole world, and Jean Todt threw a ten-franc coin to decide which of his charges would receive the order to slow down. In the fight for victory, Vatanen and Ickx were ready to crumble their ultra-expensive Peugeot prototypes into African dust.