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acegear
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Joined: 22 Oct 2004
Posts: 973
Location: Enumclaw, WA
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 Posted: Thu Feb 10, 2005 10:13 pm Post subject: 2005 Dakar |
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The 2005 Dakar started on December 31, 2004 in Barcelona, Spain and finished on January 16, 2005 in Dakar, Senegal. Traveling over 9,000km, competitors encountered everything from howling sand storms to torrential rain.
Dakar is a special type of rally known as rally-raid. A cross country endurance event, rally-raids are stage races like traditional rally, however hardly any racing is done on established roads. With navigation to checkpoints along the way competetors are left to fend for themselves with very little support.
All kinds of vehicle participate, from motorcycles to commercial-size trucks. These are the different categories:
PRODUCTION CARS:
Super Production 4WD
Petrol-engined production
Diesel-engined production
Marathon Petrol-engined
Marathon Diesel-engined
MODIFIED CARS:
Petrol-engined modified
Diesel-engined modified
PROTOTYPE CARS:
Petrol-engined 4-wheel drive
Diesel-engined 4 wheel drive
Petrol-engined 2-wheel drive
Diesel-engined 2 wheel drive
BIKES:
Super Production
Production
Experimental
TRUCKS:
Homologated prod trucks
4x4 production trucks
6 to 8 wheel prod trucks
Other production trucks
The race was first organized in 1978 by French cross-country racer Thierry Sabine after he had become lost in the desert a year before. He envisioned the race to be the ultimate in difficulty and endurance. The race has since claimed the lives of 45 competitors and become one of the most storied races in motorsports history.
As noted before, this years race, started in Barcelona, Spain and finished in Dakar, Senegal. There were a total of 16 stages covering over 9,000km. Each stage is a combination of "liaison" and "special" sections. "Liasion" is distance traveled to get to one point from another, however does not count towards the time of the race. Meaning that 45km may be spent traveling at the beginning of a stage to get to the start of the "special" section. The "special" section could be 120km that is timed and counts towards the overall time of the race, then another 50km section of "liasion" to end the stage.
With the advent of GPS, teams are given a start point and finish point as reference, however checkpoints are situated along the way to provide support and medical attention if needed.
Overall, Dakar has developed into the ultimate motorsports adventure that brings factory supported and privateer teams together for an adventure of a lifetime.
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