Beginning of a new year and it's again time for the famous, or rather infamous due to the death/injury tolls, Dakar Rally (formerly aka Paris-Dakar Rally), not a huge motor sport fan but this legendary rally have always fascinated me, maybe due to in my younger past when I did a bit motocross riding in the woods or a sand mining pit mostly on a 250cc (for a short period did also have a very old Yamaha 465cc from early 80's which was brutal to kick-start, will never forget all those bruises on my right foot-sole lol ), and back then had my young utopian daydreams of maybe one day participating in it, no I don't think I would have been anywhere near a winner but just for the heck of it and having done it ones, well it stayed a dream.
Finland did also have a golden age period in the car section where they won every year between the 1987 to 1991, most of them by Ari Vatanen except for 1988 which was won by Juha Kankkunen, both known former rally drivers, and having a glass of milk at goal to celebrate the win was the norm, of course.
Ari on the left, and Juha:
https://www.iltalehti.fi/ralli/a/67649176-fd83-42e4-86d2-aceffe7198e6
https://web.archive.org/web/2023011.../ralli/a/67649176-fd83-42e4-86d2-aceffe7198e6
Anyhow, for 2024 Dakar Rally, the 46th edition which have just kicked off, is now hosted by Saudi Arabia and is going on between 5 to 19 January.
Living in these days and age of internet it's thankfully easy to get a glimpse of each days stages on their YouTube channel, any other Dakar rally fans and followers around here?
https://www.youtube.com/@OfficialDakar
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dakar_Rally
https://www.dakar.com/en/
https://www.redbull.com/int-en/dakar-rally-need-to-know (good reading)
https://web.archive.org/web/20240107084022/https://www.redbull.com/int-en/dakar-rally-need-to-know
Finland did also have a golden age period in the car section where they won every year between the 1987 to 1991, most of them by Ari Vatanen except for 1988 which was won by Juha Kankkunen, both known former rally drivers, and having a glass of milk at goal to celebrate the win was the norm, of course.
Ari on the left, and Juha:
https://www.iltalehti.fi/ralli/a/67649176-fd83-42e4-86d2-aceffe7198e6
https://web.archive.org/web/2023011.../ralli/a/67649176-fd83-42e4-86d2-aceffe7198e6
Anyhow, for 2024 Dakar Rally, the 46th edition which have just kicked off, is now hosted by Saudi Arabia and is going on between 5 to 19 January.
Living in these days and age of internet it's thankfully easy to get a glimpse of each days stages on their YouTube channel, any other Dakar rally fans and followers around here?
https://www.youtube.com/@OfficialDakar
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dakar_Rally
https://www.dakar.com/en/
https://www.redbull.com/int-en/dakar-rally-need-to-know (good reading)
https://web.archive.org/web/20240107084022/https://www.redbull.com/int-en/dakar-rally-need-to-know
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In the good old days when our city (Perth) hosted a round of the WRC, I saw Kankkunen and Vatanen driving on our notorious ball bearing gravel. In the first year or two before the safety rules became too restrictive, you could get very close to the action in the forest stages....of course, taking care not to stand where there was a chance you'd get cleaned up if something went wrong. Anyway, I was shocked at how masterly these guys were on the gravel which, on a hill, was difficult to even stand on without slipping.
I can still remember the commentary from a tent pointing out the gears the cars were using and estimating that their speed was around 200 km/h on winding tracks one car wide lined with karri trees. These guys were incredible.
I was hooked, until the OTT safety rules kicked in and you could no longer be part of the action, having to stand too far away in large crowds unable to see what was going on.
I actually bumped into Mr Kankkunen in the street outside his hotel, but pretended I didn't know him. This was the year he was driving a Celica GT-Four, but I also saw him in a Lancia Delta Integrale (my favourite!). Vatanen was with Subaru Prodrive in an Impreza.
A snip from an article back then describing the roads:
Ford was making its first foray to the event and had two Escort RS Cosworths for Francois Delecour/Daniel Grataloup and Massimo Biasion/Tiziano Siviero. The cars seemed not to be ideally set up for the peculiar conditions in Western Australia, with narrow, slippery tracks and trees right up to the track edges to make corner-clipping a very risky practice indeed, and neither crew was able to display top mettle.
I can still remember the commentary from a tent pointing out the gears the cars were using and estimating that their speed was around 200 km/h on winding tracks one car wide lined with karri trees. These guys were incredible.
I was hooked, until the OTT safety rules kicked in and you could no longer be part of the action, having to stand too far away in large crowds unable to see what was going on.
I actually bumped into Mr Kankkunen in the street outside his hotel, but pretended I didn't know him. This was the year he was driving a Celica GT-Four, but I also saw him in a Lancia Delta Integrale (my favourite!). Vatanen was with Subaru Prodrive in an Impreza.
A snip from an article back then describing the roads:
Ford was making its first foray to the event and had two Escort RS Cosworths for Francois Delecour/Daniel Grataloup and Massimo Biasion/Tiziano Siviero. The cars seemed not to be ideally set up for the peculiar conditions in Western Australia, with narrow, slippery tracks and trees right up to the track edges to make corner-clipping a very risky practice indeed, and neither crew was able to display top mettle.
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Yes, I love the Dakar and try to catch the highlights on a daily basis on YT. Of all the categories I personally find the trucks fascinating. Most fascinating is the camera work and landscapes.
A few days ago I became aware of the Africa Eco Race that seems to be a substitute/replacement of the original Dakar to Paris. It also runs now, the same time as the Saudi Dakar. You can also follow this on YT daily.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Africa_Eco_Race
A few days ago I became aware of the Africa Eco Race that seems to be a substitute/replacement of the original Dakar to Paris. It also runs now, the same time as the Saudi Dakar. You can also follow this on YT daily.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Africa_Eco_Race
I am Dutch and was of course a fan of Jan de Rooy and his monster truck. When he once overtook Ari Vatanen at about 200 km/h, the legend has it Vatanen ate his steering wheel..
You realize how big Africa is when you look at the distances! The 1979 rally covered 10 000 km.
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The support trucks are still pretty insane as they can't be too far behind the cars or they wouldn't get time to service them each evening. A wonderful and mad event.
Mad as in Mad Max sort of, yes.
https://www.youtube.com/@africarace
Thanks for the hint, wasn't aware of Africa Race either, and yes it looks like a Paris Dakar continuation, already full on right now 30 Dec 2023- 14 Jan 2024, awesome.
https://www.youtube.com/@africarace
While wearing sneakers. Glad you lived to tell about it, after riding any dirt bike 400cc / up.
Got to have a few young-and-dumb stories in your baggage to chuckle over when getting older. :)
What made that old bike so dreadful to kick-start was its proneness to backfire, otherwise it wasn't that painful to live with, sometimes had a friend pushing the bike on the pavement with me standing straight up on the pegs and then slamming in the 2nd gear without using the clutch while concurrently bouncing with full force on the seat, but that badass would often just drag the rear wheel locked with it, it was made for a 600 pound gorilla so had to go.
What made that old bike so dreadful to kick-start was its proneness to backfire, otherwise it wasn't that painful to live with, sometimes had a friend pushing the bike on the pavement with me standing straight up on the pegs and then slamming in the 2nd gear without using the clutch while concurrently bouncing with full force on the seat, but that badass would often just drag the rear wheel locked with it, it was made for a 600 pound gorilla so had to go.