Dakar Rally Rules

15. Disqualified participants may not participate in the rally or remain in the rally camps. The 2008 Dakar Rally was cancelled for security reasons after al-Qaeda murdered four French tourists on Christmas Eve in December 2007 in Mauritania (a country where the rally spent eight days), various accusations against the rally, which it described as “neo-colonialist”, and al-Qaeda`s accusations against Mauritania, which they described as supporters of the “Crusaders, apostates and infidels.” French organization Amaury Sport, responsible for the 6,000-kilometer (3,700-mile) rally, said in a statement that the French government had asked it to cancel the race, which was scheduled to start in Lisbon on January 5, 2008. They said direct threats against the event were also made by al-Qaeda-affiliated organizations. [41] [42] In 1982, there were 382 riders, more than twice as many as in 1979. Neveu won the event for the third time, this time on a Honda motorcycle, while the victory in the vehicle category went to the Marreau brothers, who drove a privately entered Renault 20. Auriol won his second class victory in 1983, the first year that the Japanese manufacturer Mitsubishi participated in the rally, and began a union that would last until 2009. At the request of the winner of the 1983 category, Jacky Ickx, Porsche participated in the Dakar in 1984, the total number of entries was now 427. [8] The German brand won the event right away thanks to René Metge, who had already won in the vehicle category in 1981, while Ickx finished sixth. Gaston Rahier, meanwhile, continued BMW`s success in the motorcycle category with successive victories in 1984 and 1985, the year of Mitsubishi`s first victory out of 12 in the vehicle category, Patrick Zaniroli took the spoils.

The 1986 event, won by Metge and Neveu, was marred by the death of the event`s founder, Sabine, in a helicopter crash, with her father Gilbert taking over the organization of the rally. 9. The entire crew shall be present for the duration of the stage. No team substitution is allowed. The rally director must be informed of any technical or medical situation that may require the dissolution of a team for part of the rally. In this situation, the organizers will not respond to requests for assistance until the team is back in the race in the next section on the same day or in the first section of the next day. Failure to inform the organizers of an apology leads to relegation to the adventure category. Sorry for the day or a section can only be given three times (three sections) for the whole rally. If further apologies are required, the participant will be relegated to the adventure category.

The Dakar Rally (or simply “The Dakar”; formerly known as the “Paris-Dakar Rally”) is an annual rally-raid organized by Amaury Sport Organisation. Most of the events since its inception in 1978 have taken place from Paris, France, to Dakar, Senegal, but due to security threats in Mauritania that led to the cancellation of the 2008 rally, events took place in South America from 2009 to 2019. [1] [2] [3] Since 2020, the rally has been taking place in Saudi Arabia. The event is open to the participation of amateurs and professionals, with amateurs usually representing about eighty percent of the participants. The Dakar Series: The Afriquia Merzouga Rally (www.merzougarally.com/fr/) On this page you will find the complete rules of the rally. Rally participants are required to read the rules carefully and abide by them at all times during the rally. This is where the clock starts ticking. Participants usually start in the order of classification of the special bet of the previous level.

If it does not start on time, this will result in the penalties provided for in the rules of the event. At the 2012 rally, the X-raid team came to the fore and now used minis instead of BMW. Peterhansel had joined the team in 2010 after Mitsubishi left, but could not challenge the Volkswagen drivers. After Volkswagen`s withdrawal, Peterhansel was able to claim his fourth victory in the vehicle category and tenth overall, with his main opponent coming from his own team. Peterhansel successfully defended his title in 2013 when the Jefferies de Sainz and Al-Attiyah women`s buggies did not survive the distance. Despres scored two more victories for KTM in the motorcycle class in 2012 and 2013, bringing his record to five, helped by Coma`s injury-related absence last year. Coma bounced back on his return to the Dakar in 2014, winning a comfortable fourth title and a 13th in a row for KTM, while Nani emulated Roma Auriol and Peterhansel by winning his first title in the automotive category a decade after his victory on two wheels – but only after the orders of the X-raid peterhansel team slowed down. [18] 1.

Each vehicle is registered for the race according to the VIN number. The replacement of the frame of the vehicles and there by the change of the chassis number during the rally is not allowed, as is a change of displacement and therefore of the respective race category. Rallying is an off-road endurance event. The terrain traveled by competitors is much more difficult than that of conventional rallying, and the vehicles used are usually real all-terrain vehicles and motorcycles and unmodified road vehicles. Most of the competitive special sections are off-road, crossing dunes, mud, camel grass, rocks and ergs, among others. The distances of each stage covered vary from short distances up to 800-900 kilometers (500-560 miles) per day. The rally was criticized before 2000 for crossing the disputed territory of Western Sahara, occupied by Morocco since 1975, without the agreement of the pro-independence polisario front movement, which considers itself a representative of the indigenous Saharawi people. [49] [50] After the control of the race received formal authorization from the Polisario in the year 2000, this ceased to be a problem. [51] 182 cars started the first rally in Paris, 74 survived the 10,000-kilometer (6,200-mile) journey to the Senegalese capital Dakar. Cyril Neveu was the first winner of the event on a Yamaha motorcycle. The event quickly gained popularity, with 216 vehicles launched in 1980 and 291 in 1981. [8] The buccaneer spirit of the first riders who approached the event with limited resources encouraged participants such as Thierry de Montcorgé in a Rolls-Royce and Formula 1 driver Jacky Ickx with actor Claude Brasseur in a Citroën CX, in the 1981 race won by two-time winner Hubert Auriol.

[5] 4. The vehicle must be registered in the name of the driver. If the vehicle is not registered in the driver`s name, the driver must have a French translation of the registration document validated by the registered owner of the vehicle or a document that gives the driver all the legal rights necessary to travel within and between the countries of the rally and to be validated by the owner of the vehicle. 2. All vehicles in the race category must be equipped with a GPS receiver, which must be switched on and stores the current track data for the duration of each stage. At the request of the race director, the device must be made available to the organization for data download. This information can be used to verify compliance with the rules, in particular compliance with speed limits and the achievement of checkpoints. The organization is configured to download and review data from Garmin devices. If a different brand is used, the owner must be able to provide data in GPX format. A new Dakar Classic class was introduced in 2021 for cars and trucks produced before 2000, or for new vehicles built to original specifications before 2000. These vehicles share the same bivouac and organization, but travel on a parallel but different route suitable for historic vehicles.

The scoreboard is not based on the fastest time, but on the points system of the regularity rally. The class has a reduced entrance fee, but the same rules and fees apply to support. [27] Any participant or crew registered for the race and forced to retire (except for medical reasons) can benefit from a single wildcard throughout the rally, which allows them to continue the start once they have recovered and repaired their vehicle. The participant will resume the race in a separate classification, the “DAKAR EXPERIENCE”. All the information about the terms and conditions of this joker can be found here. 9. In case of technical or medical problems that prevent you from continuing as a participant with your own vehicle, you must arrange your personal transport as well as the transport of your vehicle. However, if you find a way to transport yourself from one camp to another, you are welcome to stay for the duration of the rally.

44,000 The optional start of the rally in Paris and the time spent from Paris to formal registration and departure in Morocco will not be included in the ranking and there is no timing by the organizers before the start in Morocco. Vehicles that do not pass the controls are not eligible to start the rally. The rally will be televised in more than 190 countries. A live stream of the event and a summary of the progress of each day`s race become a 26-minute program. [30] This has been commented on for ten years by Toby Moody and more recently by Neil Cole. [31] Any person or entity not affiliated with The Real Way to Dakar may not use, copy, modify or modify any photograph, graphic, videography or other similar reproduction or recording of Real Way to Dakar without the prior written permission of an authorized representative of the Rally.