The race originated as Paris to Dakar rally. If you look at a map, that goes through all varieties of earthly terrain. Rhinos and lions on course? Sure. Point is it was a real crap shoot and a tough race to win. Then, armed raiders appeared at the bivouac and robbed everybody. They had to fly everybody and their cars, bikes and trucks out and cancel the event. They held the Dakar in South America for a number of years, which wasn’t too bad. Then the Saudis bought into the event, and it’s become a desert only rally and those that can surf the dunes win the game. It’s still tough at some levels, but fairly predictable.
![[Off topic] 2024 Dakar Winners Carlos Sainz sr and Lucas Cruz. Audi will now leave Dakar to concentrate on its 2026 F1 entry](https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/b7909e99-7b4a-486b-bac5-55e34cb8427b.webp){kind=link}
Sainz won the Dakar at 61. Pretty impressive. The world’s toughest motor rally isn’t what it once was, though.
I’ve never followed it, what’s changed?
The race originated as Paris to Dakar rally. If you look at a map, that goes through all varieties of earthly terrain. Rhinos and lions on course? Sure. Point is it was a real crap shoot and a tough race to win. Then, armed raiders appeared at the bivouac and robbed everybody. They had to fly everybody and their cars, bikes and trucks out and cancel the event. They held the Dakar in South America for a number of years, which wasn’t too bad. Then the Saudis bought into the event, and it’s become a desert only rally and those that can surf the dunes win the game. It’s still tough at some levels, but fairly predictable.