From Paris to Dakar and Beyond
Periodic rainfall, especially during the dark of night, challenged the competitors of this year’s 24 Heures du Mans with Ferrari nosing out Toyota by 14 seconds to take the overall title. A greater array of obstacles faces the racers in the annual Dakar Rally, formerly known as the Paris-Dakar Rally, that will take place in January. From its first run in 1978-1979 until 2007, a variety of vehicles competed to find their way from Paris, France to Dakar, Senegal. Roads often were optional or nonexistent. A sense of adventure, mechanical expertise, creativity, and endurance were not. The rally in its fifth decade differs in many ways from its initial conception by Frenchman Thierry Sabine but stays true to his vision of a rally to “faire vibrer ceux qui partent, faire rêver ceux qui restent.” It is “a challenge for those who go [and] a dream for those who stay behind.”
Thierry Sabine in Alger. Image credit: Yelles M.C.A., CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Sabine was born in 1949 outside Paris and became a motor sports enthusiast from a young age. He competed in automobile rallies around France in his twenties, including Les 24 Heures du Mans, and won several races in the early 1970s. In 1975 while working in public relations in northern France, he created a motorcycle rally that is now called the Enduropale du Touquet Pas-de-Calais. Two years later, he joined with several friends to enter the Abidjan-Nice motorcycle rally. Sabine ran out of gas in the Ténéré, a desert region in Libya, and survived three days with scant provisions before being rescued. The harsh conditions he had endured did not suppress his excitement for rallies; instead, Sabine was awed by the desert and other parts of the African continent he had traversed. He envisioned a rally from Europe to Africa and worked to make it a reality, leading the organization of the first Paris-Dakar Rally that saw nearly 200 motorcycles, cars, and trucks depart from the Place du Trocadéro in Paris on December 26, 1978. Fewer than half of the competitors, led by inaugural winner Cyril Neveu of France, arrived on the shores of Lake Retba, the ‘Lac Rose’, on the outskirts of Dakar by the end of the event on January 14, 1979.
2011 Dakar Rally Prize for Truck Class T4. Image credit: Акутагава, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Sabine’s love for motorsports and adventure, combined with his public relations expertise, generated buzz for the event among fellow drivers as well as vehicle manufacturers. It also introduced the beauty and variety of North and West African landscapes to rally participants, support staff, and spectators. Within several years the number of participants doubled, meeting the rally challenge on various vehicles provided by some of the biggest names in motorsports: Renault, Yamaha, Volkswagen, Honda, BMW, and others. Neveu repeated his title in 1980 and went on to win the rally five times in total on Yamaha and Honda motorcycles.
In 1983, the race route expanded to include the Ténéré where Sabine first imagined organizing the Paris-Dakar Rally. He made sure that arrangements were in place for the safety of the participants, knowing first-hand of the difficulties inherent in traversing the desert terrain. The following year, the route changed again to run through Mauritania in addition to circling further south through Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea, and Sierra Leone. Paris-Dakar drew even greater attention with Belgian racing legend Jacky Ickx participating in a Porsche, a driver-manufacturer combination that had triumphed repeatedly at the 24 Heures du Mans and other endurance races.
The 1986 race was initially marked by inclement weather and rocky terrain that caused accidents, injuries, and vehicle failures before reaching the perils of the desert. Over half of the starting participants had dropped out two-thirds of the way through the rally and air support was grounded by fierce sandstorms in mid-January. A helicopter carrying Thierry Sabine and four others took off to seek out lost racers but crashed in Mali, killing all those aboard. With many believing that Sabine would want the rally to continue despite the tragedy, his father Gilbert took on the role of event organizer for several years. He was succeeded in 1994 by the Amaury Sports Organization, a French sporting event company that also oversees the Tour de France. During this time of race management transition, French motorcyclist Stéphane Peterhansel began to make a name for himself, winning the rally six times during the 1990s before switching to cars in which he continued his success. Peterhansel has won the Dakar Rally 14 times on three continents and is currently an instrumental player in an electric endurance vehicle project with Audi.
Joan Barreda competes in the 2016 Dakar Rally. Image credit: Amvasesoresargentina, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
The Dakar Rally has seen many changes, criticisms, and innovations over the past thirty years while maintaining the appeal of challenging drivers and vehicles to confront nature and the limits of endurance. The race route has changed venues from Europe to Africa to South America to Saudi Arabia, where the 2025 Dakar Rally will take place. Motorcycles, cars, and trucks have been joined by utility task vehicles (UTVs), a type of off-road vehicle, and manufacturers and racers alike have experimented with every component to improve performance, durability, and safety. Consumer and commercial vehicles have benefited from these efforts and experiences; for example, lightweight materials that can withstand weather and protect the vehicle’s passengers as well as improving fuel efficiency were developed and tested on endurance racing vehicles.
Nonetheless, the cultural and environmental impacts on areas that the Dakar Rally crosses cannot be ignored. The race did raise awareness of the regions and countries it traversed but often with little benefit to their people and with dust, emissions, and damage to the landscapes, including accidents that have killed spectators and bystanders. Over the years, rally organizers and sponsors have taken greater care to plan the race route around ecologically sensitive areas and made donations of funds and goods to support local communities.
Jeu de français
An endurance race such as Les 24 Heures du Mans or the Dakar Rally takes a toll on every part of the participating vehicle and thus necessitates an accompanying supply of replacement parts. Test your knowledge or use the French automobile terms crossword puzzle below to add to your specialized French vocabulary.
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