Dakar Rally heads for Saudi Arabia for 2020
The Dakar Rally is on the move again – and this time it’s heading to the Middle East! From 2020. the infamously tough rally will turn it’s back on South America – it’s home for ten years – and head to the endless sands of Saudi Arabia.
TEN-YEAR ITCH
Started way back in 1979, the rally – once known as the Paris-Dakar rally – originally ran from a start point in the French capital and heading to the Senegalese capital. The event was relocated to South America back in 2009 after terrorist threats in Mauretania made the race too risky and lead to the cancellation of the 2008 rally.
But despite successful rallies in the events new home, the 2019 incarnation of the race was confined to just Peru after organisers failed to reach agreements to race in neighbouring Bolivia, Chile, Ecuador and Argentina. With hosting the race costing vast sums, it’s perhaps not surprising that these countries had difficulties prioritising the rally over more pressing economic issues!
Either way, organisers Amaury Sport Organisation – ASO – are expected to confirm the relocation of the event to Saudi Arabia with the riders and drivers setting off from the countries capital Riyadh.
SIMILAR TERRAIN, JUST CLOSER
For the many motorcycle teams that compete in the Dakar Rally. the move will likely prove to be a far more convenient option that the long trek to Peru. With many of the teams being European-based, Saudi Arabia will simplify the logistics, even if culturally there may be more issues to overcome in the fiercely religious kingdom.
KTM – winners of the event for the last eigtheen years – have a training base for their rally riders in northern Morocco, and the Middle East location is clearly vastly easier for both this and the Austrian factory. And with navigating the terrain in Saudi being very similar to that of both Morocco and the dunes of the 2019 Dakar in Peru, and of course that of the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge recently won by Brit Sam Sunderland.
A NEW ERA?
So will the change in location mark the end of KTM’s stranglehold on the event? Can Honda finally find the reliability to get their CRF450 over the line for the first time? Or will it be Yamaha that finally get a break from the appalling misfortune that has dogged their top riders for too many years. And what about Husqvarna? Will KTM ever allow their record to slip and allow the sister brand to take the crown?
Only eight months to go till we find out …
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