SEA CAMP, Saudi Arabia — When it comes to endurance races in motor sport, nothing can quite
compete with the annual Dakar Rally, which starts its 45th edition on the
shores of the Red Sea today.
اضافة اعلان
This year's event
stretches 8,549km over 15 days of racing, including a four-day excursion into
the yet unexplored desert dunes of the vast Rub' Al-Khali, or Empty Quarter.
"'Be Afraid'
seems to be the message of the route for the 2023 Dakar," said organizers
when they revealed the course at the start of December.
Swedish
driver Mattias Ekstrom and his co-driver Emil Bergkvist of Sweden ride during a
training session by the Red Sea in Yanbu on December 30, 2022, ahead of the
upcoming 2023 Dakar Rally in Saudi Arabia from December 31 to January 15, 2023.
The warning does not
appear to have put anyone off: more than 800 riders, drivers and co-drivers are
set to head out in an array of motorcycles, cars, quads, trucks, and light
vehicles when the race begins on Saturday.
Among them some
well-known names, including nine-time World Rally champion Sebastien Loeb (BRX)
who is relishing the prospect of competing in his sixth Dakar.
"It's 14 stages, it's very long, a proper endurance rally," he said. "We need to find the right pace to get to the finish with as few mistakes as possible."
"It's 14 stages,
it's very long, a proper endurance rally," he said. "We need to find
the right pace to get to the finish with as few mistakes as possible."
The Frenchman, who has
just won the 2022 edition of the Extreme E, has a tough battle in front of him
if he is to improve on his three podium finishes and chalk up that first win.
Audi's hybrid
driver Stephane Peterhansel looks on during a training session by the Red Sea
in Yanbu on December 30, 2022.
Notably, he will need
to unseat defending champion Nasser Al-Attiyah (Toyota), a quadruple winner of
the event, but he will also be up against another WRC legend Carlos Sainz
(Mini) as well as the Dakar great Stephane Peterhansel (Audi) who has won the
event 14 times — eight in a car and six on a bike.
On the motorcycle
side, defending champion Sam Sunderland (GasGas) will face a stiff challenge
from the likes of Daniel Sanders (GasGas), Pablo Quintanilla (Honda), Matthias
Walkner (KTM), and Adrien Van Beveren (Honda).
ConcernsAmaury Sport
Organization, which runs the event, says it has increased security around the
bivouacs where the 2,700 people of the Dakar caravan will be accommodated.
Audi's hybrid
driver Stephane Peterhansel and his co-driver Edouard Boulanger of France ride
during a training session by the Red Sea in Yanbu on December 30, 2022.
The rally, of course,
is no stranger to security issues.
The first race in 1978
set off from the Trocadero in Paris and ended in the Senegal capital, but after
29 years in Africa, the threats became too great.
Amaury Sport Organization, which runs the event, says it has increased security around the bivouacs where the 2,700 people of the Dakar caravan will be accommodated.
That meant moving the
race to South America for 11 years before switching it to Saudi Arabia in 2020.
This picture
taken on December 29, 2022 shows an aerial view of a bivouac by the Red Sea
coast near Saudi Arabia's Yanbu ahead of the 2023 Dakar Rally, which this year
will take place in Saudi Arabia from December 31, 2022 to January 15, 2023.
The rally ends on
January 15 on the kingdom's eastern sea border.
Read more Drive
Jordan News