Rally Dakar(formerly the Paris-Dakar Rally) is a rally marathon that has been held annually since 1978. Of all the rally races is the longest. Not only professionals compete - up to 80% of the participants are amateurs who lack adrenaline in their lives. Participants are divided into categories of cars, motorcycles, ATVs and trucks. Before the transfer of the race to the American continent in 2009, the rally routes ran through Europe and Africa.
Story.
The famous French motorcycle racer Thierry Sabin became the organizer of the new desert rally. In 1977, while participating in another rally in the Sahara desert, he lost his way, but was rescued by local residents. The debut Dakar Rally began in Paris on the eve of the new year, 1979, and ended in Dakar three weeks later.
In the first race, the crews of cars, trucks and motorcycles left the start at the same time, as a result, the entire podium was occupied by motorcyclists. Since 1980, a classification of participants has been introduced, and since then prizes have been awarded to the winners of each of the three categories. The founder of the race died tragically in a 1986 helicopter crash, but his legacy lives on.
Initially, the rally routes were laid through the countries of Europe and Africa, and one of the extreme points of the race, with rare exceptions, was the city of Dakar, the capital of Senegal. On the eve of the 2008 race in Mauritania, there was a skirmish between visitors and the local population on religious grounds, which resulted in the death of French tourists. Therefore, the race had to be canceled, and since 2009 the competition has been held in South America through Argentina, Peru and Chile. The Sahara has been replaced by the Atacama Desert. Also since 2009, the category of ATVs has been introduced.
Rules.
The rally starts every year in the first days of January. Races are held on public tracks without traffic restrictions. Competitions are held every day, the average length of the day stage is from 700 to 900 km. Usually the organizers lay the route along the mountain roads through the Andes, along the Pacific coast of South America, through the Atacama Desert.
The total length of the route is about 10,000 kilometers.
The road surface is typical for the desert - salt marshes, sand of sand dunes, stones. In addition, the weather also throws up surprises, which complicates the competition.
For control, the participants are given GPS transmitters, but they have to lay the route in the traditional way, for this they are given a legend and a map of the area. When passing the route, riders are marked at checkpoints. For more precise control, there are hidden items that the participants do not know about.
The stage is held all day - from dawn to dusk, when the riders arrive at the intermediate finish. For sleep, as a rule, a couple of hours are allotted, the rest of the time is repair and preparation of the car for the race.
The winner is the leader in the overall standings. If serious factory teams fight for the first places of the podium, then for the majority of amateurs the main thing in the race is at least just to reach the finish line. As a rule, less than half of the participants make it.
According to the results of the race, the title of Dakar Champion among pilots, navigators is awarded, the manufacturers are awarded the Constructors' Cup. A commemorative prize in the form of a small Tuareg figurine is awarded to each participant who has safely reached the finish line. Despite the fact that accidents and fatal accidents happen almost every year on the rally, hundreds of enthusiasts go every year on New Year's Eve to South America. Just like in Vysotsky's song "There is no plain for you here."
Records.
In the class of cars and motorcycles, the best pilot is the Frenchman Stefan Petransel, who until 1998 acted on motorcycles, and then moved to a car (winning 5 and 6 times, respectively). In 2015, Spaniard Marc Coma won his fifth title. In the ATV class, the Argentines Alejandro Patronelli and Marcos Patronelli won twice. Out of competition in the truck class Vladimir Chagin (7 wins).
Constructors' Cup leaders in each class: cars - Mitsubishi (12 wins), motorcycles - KTM (14 wins), ATVs - Yamaha (7 wins) and trucks - KAMAZ (13 wins).
France (cars - 20 times, motorcycles - 22 times), Argentina (quad bikes - 4 times) and Russia (trucks - 13 times) are leading in the classification of nations.
The first ever super marathon 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 adventure 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 had a hand (foot, heart...) in almost any high-profile event, any high-profile premiere taking place not only in Europe, but in the whole world. And the Paris-Dakar Rally is just a confirmation of this. It starts in the heart of France - Paris. The author and founding father is French. For a long time, it was the French who were champions, or certainly contenders for the title. Few? Read more…
The first ever super marathon race from France to Senegal - the authors of the "Paris-Dakar"- launched on December 26, 1978. The initiator of the first rallies was the French motorcycle racer Thierry Sabin, whose adventure 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. The rescued Thierry Sabin returned to France, deeply impressed by what had happened and impressed by the fantastic landscape of the desert. He promised himself that he would share this journey with as many people as possible. Thierry Sabin compiled 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 Algiers and then, ultimately, led the participants to Dakar. His idea quickly materialized. But if at the beginning the race track always passed through Algeria, then since 1989, due to the difficult internal political situation in this country, the organizers of the rally were forced to prepare routes through Morocco or Libya.
But how was it then? There were 80 motorcyclists, 90 car crews and 12 truck crews at the start of the race, a total of 182 participants. The tests began with a 4-kilometer prologue near a military camp in the vicinity of Orleans. The total length of the route was 8500 kilometers, of which 3169 kilometers fell on 8 special stages. The participants had to overcome the most kilometers on the second day - 2370 kilometers from Algiers 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 for everyone was very serious! The fact is that in those days, almost no one had assistance, and if there was technical support, then they had a minimal amount of spare parts. The racers participated practically without special uniforms, today we can say that in those days the preparation for the races, as well as the equipment was primitive. Nevertheless, a third of the starting participants reached Dakar on January 14 - 74 participants.
Of all the participants in the first marathon, Martina de Cortans should be especially singled out as the first woman to finish on a motorcycle. By the way, 7 women came to the start of the race!
In the first Paris-Dakar race, there was no separate classification, as it is 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 in those days. And although Neva was opposed by very serious rivals, including Gilles Comte, who uses Yamaha factory support, he did not miss his chance. It is noteworthy that Cyril Neve won the first Dakar without winning a single special stage.
Now the 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 on any car: a car, a truck, a motorcycle, an ATV. The length of the route, passing through the savannas and mountain passes, deserts and jungles, is approximately ten thousand kilometers.
The motto of the marathon is: "A duel for the participants. A dream for the spectators."
The Paris-Dakar rally starts every year on New Year's Eve. Initially, rallies were one of the stages of the World Rally Raid Cup. However, due to disagreements in the technical regulations, the rally marathon was withdrawn from the World Cup, while remaining the most prestigious competition.
182 crews took part in the first Dakar, 74 of them finished. Every year the number of rally participants is steadily increasing. The most attractive thing in the Paris-Dakar, according to the participants, are the real and uncontrived 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 skiing Luc Alphand, famous yachtsman Laurent Bourgnon, two-time world champion in rock climbing Isabelle Patissier and other celebrities took to the track.
#7#
As you know, Dakar is open to almost anyone, not even athletes, but simply amateurs looking for adventure. And then, as they say, who cares what. There are eccentrics who, as before, drive absolutely serial cars, only equipped with the necessary minimum in terms of safety - a frame, seats with seat belts, a fire extinguishing system, that's actually all. But those who want to get closer to the leaders, at least in technical terms, are looking for more serious equipment. And at their service in a developed not only in the economic and automotive, but also in the motorsport world, there are a lot of companies.
The Paris-Dakar rally also knows many tragic deaths of riders: At Dakar 1982, Mark Thatcher, the son of British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, went missing for 6 days along with his navigator Charlotte Verney and a mechanic. During a large-scale search operation, their white Peugeot 504 was spotted from an Algerian military aircraft 50 km away from the rally route. Thatcher, Verney and the mechanic were unharmed. The Dakar-1986 rally-raid went down in history by the fact that on January 14, Dakar founder Thierry Sabin and four other people with him died in a helicopter accident. In general, 50 people have already died in the history of the desert marathon, including 24 athlete.
In 2008, the automobile marathon "Dakar" would have turned thirty years old. During this time, about 13,500 people managed to take part in it, who traveled through the territory of 21 countries in all 29 receptions. The last time, in 2007, more than 1 million spectators watched the race in Portugal alone. In 2008, for the first time in the history of the Dakar, the competition was canceled., in connection with the threat of terrorist actions,
Let's look at some more statistics:
The route of the race (in global terms) has changed more than once. Until 1988, inclusive, the participants went along the route France (Paris) - Algiers - Senegal (Dakar). In 1988, 603 teams entered the race, a record that stood until 2005. In 1989, for political reasons, the race went around Algiers via Libya and Tunisia. In 1990, they did without Tunisia - the participants were transported from France immediately to Tripoli. In 1991 the route of the previous year was repeated.
In 1992, for the first time since its inception, the race crossed the whole of Africa from north to south and finished not in Dakar, but in Cape Town, South Africa. In 1994, the race was first made looped - Paris-Dakar-Paris. In 1995 the start of the rally was given for the first time not from Paris, but from Spanish Grenada. In 1996 they repeated the same option.
In 1997, the participants of the rally concentrated on the African continent. The race took place along the ring route from the Senegalese Dakar to Niger and back.
In 2000 there was one of the most "adventure" (in the negative sense of the word) "Dakar". The race took place from West to East Africa along the Dakar-Cairo route. But upon arrival in Niger, there were terrorist threats against the participants in the rally. First, it was decided to arrange an unplanned 5-day break, and then the organizers of the race decided not to risk it, and as a result, almost all of the race participants and their vehicles were transported by plane through almost the entire Niger - a giant An-124 was used for this. 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 not to finish in Dakar itself.
Interestingly, 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 a healthy competition. Behind him is a trail of blood that highlights the violent element at the heart of any attempt to export the Western way of life to the East...
Well, in 2013 we will see 35th Dakar Rally Marathon, which starts 5 January. A difficult race awaits the participants: in 15 days, drive 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 difficult sections.
And finally, stunning video trailer "Rally Dakar-2013"
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Books
- The secret of the glass crypt, Yulia Nelidova. 1907 Former lawyer Emil Gershin, who returned from a long trip to the Himalayas, will have to unravel the mystery of Dr. Inozemtsev's death. To do this, he must face...
- The secret of the glass crypt, Nelidova Yu.. 1907. Former lawyer Emil Gershin, who returned from a long trip to the Himalayas, will have to unravel the mystery of Dr. Inozemtsev's death. To do this, he must face...
The 40th edition of the Dakar Rally Marathon 2018 will not be a looped route as before: the race starts on January 6 in the southwest, in the capital of Peru - Lima, and ends on January 20 in the heart of Argentina, in the mecca of motorsport - Cordoba . During the 14 days of the race, pilots of motorcycles and ATVs will overcome 8276 km, crews of jeeps - 8793, and trucks - 8710 km.
MOTOR RACE.RU, November 27, 2017- The path through Peru will be longer than before, which again introduces an element of surprise into the race and turns the rally participants into explorers who will be the first in history to complete this path. Dakar sporting director Marc Coma promises: “Race participants will encounter a wide variety of terrain, surface types and challenges along the way, which is fully consistent with the spirit of the Dakar. The Bolivian part of the route will be the most physically demanding and will test our adventurers to the maximum. But still, Argentina will be decisive for the fight for victory. We believe that the most difficult in every sense will be the super-marathon stage in Fiambala. This is the place where everyone will have to choose their own path and fend off the crowd if they hope to triumph in Cordoba.”
As before, slightly different routes are offered for riders of different classes, both in length and along the paths chosen by the organizers. In some cases, the cars will start before the motorcyclists. But for the most part, it's the other way around. You provide a legend for the BIKE/QUAD classes. The combined route table for all classes can be found at the end of the article.
Saturday 6 January - Lima - Pisco: 272 km (SS1: 31 km)
Sand for an aperitif! The race starts immediately in the conditions of small sand dunes, no preludes and introductions. It will take a lot of skill to safely descend to the coastline. Experts will like it, and beginners will set the right pace, as well as "put a hand", because in the future there will be much more sand.
Sunday 7 January - Pisco - Pisco: 278 km (SS2: 267 km)
The loop around Pisco is a test of alertness and orientation. It will be especially difficult for crew navigators, because at high speed the person at the helm is completely concentrated on ... the steering wheel, so the partner will think for two. At this stage, there will be practically no liasson - this is 90% of the SU. Moreover, this time the jeeps will start first, and they will not have guiding threads in the form of fresh traces from recently driven motorcycles. Trucks will be the easiest here - they go along the knurled tracks, but only the first 40 km: then the dunes begin, where every man is for himself.
Monday 8 January - Pisco - San Juan de Marcona: 501 km (SS3: 295 km)
A unique stage that will incite Dakar veterans who are in love with salt lakes and views. Here the racers have to cross a large valley formed by a lake that dries up for the season, but in winter it returns. Then, you will have to climb the mountains and cross the canyon, followed by a 50-kilometer detour - there the paths of motorcycles and ATVs will diverge from the route of cars. Beginners who have coped with the first two tests will understand that it was only a “warm-up”.
Tuesday 9 January - San Juan de Marcona - San Juan de Marcona: 444 km (SS4: 330 km)
First mass start in this rally! And it will take place on the ocean. Motorcyclists will go to the stage in groups of 15 people, lined up. After, they have to go deep into the dunes for 100 km. These will be real dunes, like in the Sahara, of various sizes and heights.
Wednesday 10 January - San Juan de Marcona - Arequipa: 770 km (SS5: 264 km)
Cars and motorcycles drive separately. The first long stage, although not the longest SS. The caravan enters the Tanaka region, where high mountain dunes and wonderful beaches adjoin each other. In order to finish on time, motorcycles will have to start at dawn. It is expected that this area may have a high dropout rate due to late arrivals and lost, especially among new recruits.
Thursday 11 January - Arequipa - La Paz: 758 km (SS6: 313 km)
For five days, the Dakar traveled around Peru, and on the sixth day it will arrive in Bolivia, a country of lakes and beautiful views. After CP2, motorcyclists will face the great Lake Titicaca, the heart of the Bolivian Altiplano (high plains): the race will move to an altitude of more than 2500 m above sea level. In the evening, a hospitable bivouac awaits everyone and a good night's sleep - a day of rest is ahead!
Friday, January 12 - Rest day in La Paz
Saturday 13 January - La Paz - Uyuni: 726 km (SS7: 425 km)
Day trips are getting bigger. After crossing the border, the crews will have to update roadbooks and navigation. The dunes were left behind. Ahead - the grandiose salt marshes of Solinas Grandes. In the bivouac, technical teams will be waiting for their pilots: the night before the next day is the most important, because they have to prepare the equipment for the first marathon stage.
Sunday 14 January - Uyuni - Tupiza: 584 km (SS8: 498 km)
After a short run on the roads, the caravan is waiting for the longest special section of the Dakar Rally 2018 - and the first marathon, during which it is forbidden to use the services of technicians. In two days, the race will cross the Altiplano, which means that relatively flat areas will be replaced by real mountains and dunes that have grown above 3500 m. A serious test for the physical, moral and volitional qualities of athletes. Following the results of SS8, a short list of potential winners of the race will be determined. Traditionally, after the first marathon stage, up to 20% of riders are eliminated.
Monday 15 January - Tupiza - Salta: km 754 (SS9: km 242)
Now the struggle for victory is entering the decisive stage. The race is close to Argentina with only a few days left. The path towards Salta is high-speed primers and gravel. You can get confused in the interweaving of tracks, but whoever guesses with the direction will win a lot of time. This will require self-confidence and the absence of errors.
Tuesday 16 January - Salta - Belén: 795 km (SS10: 372 km)
One of the most well-researched regions in terms of the Dakar, having hosted the race here every time since 2009. But this will not help in any way when orienting in the dunes and on sandy plateaus! A feature of SS10 will be the opportunity to meet with your technician and use her services. But... time is ticking. This stage is another test of orientation and navigational skills. Many rivers will get in the way. Sometimes they should be crossed, and sometimes not.
Wednesday 17 January - Belén - Chilecito: 484 km (SS11: 280 km)
If the weather is hot and dry enough, the sands on the way to Chilecito will be the toughest challenge for bikers and quads since the start of the race. Here athletes with good physical preparation will get a significant advantage. The race starts in the order determined by the results of SS10, but mixed - motorcycles, buggies, trucks, jeeps, quadrics - who finished in TOP-25. After the finish in Chilecito, the bivouacs of motorcyclists and racing drivers will separate: the next morning, the bikers will start the second marathon stage.
Thursday 18 January - Chilecito - San Juan: 722 km (SS12: 375 km)
Endurance stage through rocky valleys and canyons with thousands of turns. It is impossible to use the services of technical teams again. Hitting a boulder hidden in the dust, tearing a tire or bending a wheel rim means leaving the race.
The site continues the cycle of materials dedicated to the 40th anniversary of the Dakar. In the previous issue we got acquainted with the most titled racers of the planet's main rally-raid, and now it's time to find out about the most successful teams...
MINI
The British automaker is tied with the likes of Citroen and Volkswagen in terms of wins. All three companies won the Dakar four times in the SUV category. 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 is higher.
Debuting with German racing team X-Raid in 2011, MINI celebrated its first success the very next year with the legendary Stefan Peterhansel. Definitely, the departure of Volkswagen, which won all three first Dakars in South America, played a role in this. But we must give credit: the MINI ALL4 Racing SUV, based on the MINI John Cooper Works Countryman, proved to be very fast, efficient and reliable. All five cars not only made it to 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 the Russian racer Leonid Novitsky and Nani Roma finished in third and fourth places.
But the most successful for MINI was Dakar-2014. 11 ALL4 Racing cars started in Rosario, Argentina and after 14 days they all arrived safely at the finish line in Valparaiso, Chile, including seven cars in the top ten. The advantage of X-Raid was so overwhelming that they allowed themselves to play with team tactics, confusing riders and fans in the end. Nani Roma was pulled to victory in every possible way, but even when Peterhansel deliberately slowed down, the winner of the 2004 race could not take the lead. Only a complete deliberate stop of the Frenchman on the penultimate day allowed the Spaniard to lead the overall standings and stay ahead until the finish line.
The fourth and at the moment the last victory at the Dakar was won by MINI already in 2015 together with the Qatari Nasser Al-Attiyah. Peterhansel joined the new Peugeot project, which was not surprising after all the events in the previous race, and the very next year put an end to the dominance of his former team.
MINI has not been able to compete with the French Lions at the last two Dakars, and in 2018, in the hope of throwing a challenge, along with the updated Mini John Cooper Works Rally car last year, it will put up three buggies. So, X-Raid will come fully armed to the 40th anniversary rally-raid.
Peugeot
The history of Peugeot performances at the Dakar is less than ten years old 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 after 1990. But what a story!
Switching after the close of Group B from the WRC to the Dakar, Peugeot, under the leadership of Jean Todt, immediately and against all odds won the victory. At the very start - a short prologue - the main hope of the team, Ari Vatanen, crashed his 205 Turbo 16 car and rolled 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 reach the finish line at Pink Lake after 13,000 kilometers.
Vatanen had every chance to defend the title of current 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 did not have an accident, he was not let down by an offensive technical breakdown. During an overnight stay 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 rivals, Vatanen was forced to withdraw from the race. Not everyone believed then in the version with theft, disputes remain even now. There is a version that there was no theft, and Peugeot did this trick with the car to fix a faulty engine, for which the allotted time limit was not enough to repair. 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 partner Jacky Ickx that Peugeot decided to determine the winner with an elementary toss of a coin 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 rolled over twice. Despite all the problems - a broken compass in the navigator and a hole in the back after a collision with a tree - the Finn also won the Dakar-1990 and brought Peugeot the fourth victory out of four possible. On this high note, the French automaker retired from 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 turned out to be raw, and Peugeot's best Stéphane Peterhansel was only in 11th place, while five-time winner in the motorcycle category Cyril Despres finished his debut Dakar driving an SUV only in 34th position, and Carlos Sainz retired after coup. For the "French Lions" this defeat was the first and so far the only one. After serious work on the mistakes, the company introduced a new model 2008 DKR, driving which Peterhansel added two more victories to his asset in the next two years, WRC legend Sébastien 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. Again, like 25 years, at the end of the four-year period, the French mark leaves. In the PSA Group, alas, they decided to redistribute resources and focus on rallycross.
To win bye and win the ninth of ten victories will be a matter of honor for Peugeot.
Ktm
How important is the role of the team when a 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 need to look at the history of KTM to find the answer to this question. The Austrian motorcycle manufacturer has been participating in the Dakar since 1994 and has won 16 consecutive victories in these 23 years.
From 2001 to this day, KTM has been unbeatable, and two years in a row - in 2002 and 2003 - 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 ended their careers in the motorcycle class, having won ten Dakars in a row together, it seemed that KTM's winning streak would finally end. But no. Well-trained and talented young people came to KAMAZ-Master: Australian Toby Price won in 2016, and Briton Sam Sunderland won in 2017.
Will KTM achieve a record 17th win in a row?
Mitsubishi
In the entire history of the Dakar, only one manufacturer has managed to win the SUV category more than ten times, and no one else - not Citroen, Volkswagen, MINI and even Peugeot - has such a long and successful series as Mitsubishi. For 25 years, the Japanese company, with its flagship car Pajero, nicknamed the "King of the Desert", set the heat for rivals, 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 for the next triumph for seven whole years. 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 Rosé in three first places. Another triumph came the following year - Bruno Saby won.
Mitsubishi arranged a real defeat for competitors in 1997. Six Pajero cars finished in the top ten, taking the first four places led by Kenjiro Shinozuke, who became the first Japanese driver to conquer the Dakar.
In 1998, the Mitsubishi quartet again proved to be unmatched. It's no joke - Jean-Louis Schlesser, who finished fifth on a buggy named after himself, lost eight hours to the winner Jean-Pierre Fontani, who became the second Shinozuke and the third-place Sabi about two hours. Even the closest competitor Hiroshi Masuoka, the Frenchman lost almost two hours.
However, this was only a harbinger of dominance, which the SUV category has not seen before or since.
For seven years in a row - from 2001 to 2007 - the "King of the Desert" has consistently finished first, including under the control of the German racer Uta Kleinschmidt, with the victory with which, in fact, this series began.
Mitsubishi achieved the 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 Pajero with Lancer. The new car turned out to be damp, and only one of the four crews reached 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 the WRC, Suzuki and Kawasaki in MotoGP, the 12-time Dakar winner had to reallocate resources amid the global crisis.
A few years ago, in 2015, during a visit to Moscow, Hiroshi Masuoka, who continues to work at Mitsubishi Motors, admitted the possibility of the return of the Three Diamonds to the Dakar, but so far no further talk has gone ...
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 standings of the trucks of the main rally-raid of the planet. Until the era of the Russian team, which debuted in 1990, the category of heavyweights 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 they cannot boast of such a rich and long history of success. in terms of KAMAZ, it can only compete with KTM from 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 Estonian Yoel Tammeki, losing only to Frenchman Jacques Hussa on Perlini. At the same time, all five KAMAZ trucks 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 line, Viktor Moskovskikh on a sharp sandy turn overtook the three-time Dakar triumphant at that time, the Czech Karel Loprais on 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 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 initiative was seized by the second racer "KAMAZ-Master" Firdaus Kabirov.
So they changed among themselves at the top of the podium until the end of their racing career in 2011, having won eight of the nine Dakars for two 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 racers, but the circumstances arose - at the fifth stage, the leader Chagin got into a serious accident, flying in the dust at a speed of 100-110 km / h on a three-meter pile of stones and rolled over several times. There were no tragic consequences, but even now, when you look at the photographs of what is left of the truck, your heart stops.
Chagin received a concussion, navigator Semyon Yakubov broke his arm, and mechanic Sergei Savostin received a compression fracture of a vertebra. The crew of Kabirov took up the evacuation of the broken cars, Sergey 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” Ilgizar Mardeev remained on the track, who could not fight for the victory, but finished second.
The second defeat came in 2012, when KAMAZ-Master completely changed its composition, and the burden of responsibility fell on the shoulders of the young 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 appeared on the podium. But the very next year, KAMAZ returned to its rightful positions and began a new winning streak: Eduard Nikolaev won in 2013, Andrey Karginov won in 2014, and Airat Mardeev won in 2015. Moreover, in 2015, the KAMAZ-Master riders occupied the entire podium.
In 2016, nothing seemed to portend a failure, but all the KAMAZ crews were sorely lacking in stability and speed. As a result, the Dutchman Gerard de Rooy won for Iveсo, and Mardeev, who finished second, became the only representative of the Blue Armada in the top five.
“Nothing, next year we will be angrier, we will return ours,” Airat said then and turned out to be right.
Mardeev Jr. himself, due to problems in the sands and lost two hours, could not recoup, but Nikolaev and Sotnikov brought KAMAZ-Master a winning double.
Thus, in 21 years, the Russian team won 14 victories at the Dakar, 12 of them since 2002. Impressive statistics.
Next year KAMAZ-Master is celebrating its 30th anniversary. 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 should not write off such rivals as Renault, Tatra, MAZ and other racers on Iveco cars.
Dakar is a difficult and unpredictable race, and none of the 14 victories was easy for KAMAZ...
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