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  Rally Raid

Back To The Sahara

On New Year's Day, most people are celebrating the start of a new year. For a large group of people scattered across France, Spain and Northern Africa, New Year's Day brings the beginning of arguably the toughest event in motorsport. The Dakar Rally.

Once again, almost 200 cars, bikes and trucks will set off from France, heading for the Senegalese capital of Dakar, racing across the world's harshest desert to do so. This year the event will pass through Spain, cross the Mediterreanean, then travel across Morocco, Mauritania, Mali and Burkina Faso before entering Senegal.

While the motorcycles arrive and leave first on each stage, it is the cars that get the most attention, with the entry being led by the factory Mitsubishi Motors team with their quadrella of highly modified Pajeros. The team lacks nothing for talent with defending champion Hiroshi Masuoka leading the team which also includes dual World Rally champion Miki Biaison and six time Dakar motorcycle victor Stephane Peterhansel. The fourth and less modified factory Pajero will be steered by team newcomer Andrea Mayer.

Nissan return to the Dakar after almost losing one of their drivers, veteran Japanese driver Kenjiro Shinozuka, in a horrifying accident last year. The team has been revitalised with a new evolution of the Nissan Pickup and the driver who will attract the most media attention is the 1995 World Rally Champion, Colin McRae. McRae will join fellow former World Rally Champion Ari Vatanen, Giniel de Villiers and former French and European champion Yves Loubert, while Shinozuka himself returns in a semi-factory car to exorcise his demons of 12 months before.

The lead number of the class though has been handed to dual World Sportscar Champion Jean-Louis Schlesser. The former Sauber-Mercedes champion is now a veteran of the sand in his self-built Ford-powered Schlesser buggies. Two are entered as per last year for himself and Jose Maria Servia. Volkswagen are ramping up their efforts with a two car team of Touaregs for former winners Jutta Kleinschmidt and Bruno Saby while the other major team to watch are the BMW X-Raid team of Luc Alphand and Gregoire de Mevius.

As in previous years KTMs dominate the motorcycle entry with Richard Sainct, Cyril Despres, Fabrizio Meoni, Nani Roma and Jean de Azevedo leading the field away from the Clermont-Ferrand start.

The Truck entry is a lottery and winners could come from almost any direction as last year's Dakar proved. Strong teams are being fielded representing Tatra, DAF, Mercedes Unimog, Nissan, Kamaz and MAN.

The rally is scheduled to finish on January 18.

Dakar And Deserts Offer New Challenges For McRae

By Alan Baldwin

Desert dunes and searing temperatures await former World Rally Champion Colin McRae as the Scot takes on a new challenge with his Dakar Rally debut.

McRae's previous experience of Africa is limited to the Kenyan Safari Rally but he will have more than 11,000 kilometres and 18 days to see a different side to the continent in his Nissan 4x4 pickup once the race starts on Thursday.

"I'm excited and probably a wee bit daunted," the 1995 World Champion said this month. "What I know about Dakar is what I've seen on television or been told.

"It's very much a journey into the unknown. But that's what makes it so exciting. It's a similar feeling I had when I went into my first rally in 1985."

McRae, partnered by Swedish co-driver Tina Thorner, has played down his prospects, but Nissan have high hopes with four times Dakar winner Ari Vatanen of Finland and are aiming for at least a podium finish.

"Dakar is more like the Safari Rally, where the first objective is to survive it and then think about your position," said McRae.

"I'm used to rallies where you go flat out for about six stages of 20 minutes or so on each of the three days. Dakar lasts for six times as many days and some of the stages are 700km long. You're doing 10 to 12 hours a day."

While McRae readied for Thursday's prologue in Clermont-Ferrand in France, Frenchman Michel Point seethed with anger after his bid to become the first blind entrant was stopped.

The co-driver's registration had been accepted by organisers, who had been working with him on a computer programme with navigation instruments in braille, but the French motorsport federation denied a licence on safety grounds. Point will swap places with the co-driver of his Toyota support vehicle.

"Every year people with physical disabilities compete in the Dakar," said Point. "They should allow me to compete and then we can properly judge."

The race has had several fatalities in the past, with French co-driver Bruno Cauvy killed last year when his Toyota support car crashed in Libya. Mitsubishi are the race favourites in the car category, with Hiroshi Masuoka of Japan seeking his third successive victory for a team who also have former rally world champion Miki Biasion of Italy.

Germany's Jutta Kleinschmidt, the first woman to win the Dakar in 2001, will be driving a Volkswagen Touareg after testing it in Morocco.

"It's very fast but there are still a few things to work on," she said. "To be perfectly ready, we would have needed an extra month or two. The goal is to finish in Dakar."

France's former World Cup and Olympic Alpine skier Luc Alphand will drive a BMW and sounded confident: "This year we're more than ever in the battle for victory," he said.

The motorcycle race is likely to be a KTM battle between France's Richard Sainct, winner in 1999, 2000 and 2003, and Italian Fabrizio Meoni -- champion in 2001 and 2002.

Some 411 entrants are set to start the 26th edition of the race, of which 200 are motorcycle riders and 146 cars. Seventeen former winners are competing. The rally crosses into Morocco from southern Spain on January 4 and crosses Mauritania, Mali and Burkina Faso before ending in Senegal on January 18.

McRae report provided by Reuters

  Rally

End Of The Road Looms For Former Champion Auriol

Former rally champion Didier Auriol, without a drive for next year after being released by Skoda, fears he may have reached the end of the World Championship road.

The one time ambulance driver, still France's only rally champion after winning with Toyota in 1994, looks set to follow former world beaters Tommi Makinen of Finland and Britain's Colin McRae out of the top flight.

"I'm 45 years old now so if I get nothing during 2004 then I think the WRC will be finished for me," he told rallying's official website www.wrc.com.

Skoda said in a statement that they would enter a limited number of events in 2004, with the first appearance at the Acropolis Rally in June. Finland's Toni Gardemeister was retained, with a second driver yet to be named.

"Skoda has chosen a different direction for the future and I think it's the right one," said the asphalt specialist, winner of 20 rallies since his debut in Corsica in 1984.

"I would have loved to have gone on longer with them but now is the time to stop."

Auriol said he did not know what the future held, with teams now limited to two drivers each, but could imagine following the example of 1995 champion McRae who is competing in the Dakar Rally after losing his drive at Citroen.

"There are very few cars available for me to drive, particularly with the new regulations," he said. "If there is an opening during the season then we'll see.

"Driving is still my passion and I think I am still capable of going quickly. I would certainly be interested if a team offered me a car I could fight for podiums with.

"With the new regulations some manufacturers may be inclined to use specialist drivers on some events, which may offer me opportunities."

Mosley Suggests An End To Rally Retirements

Drivers who crash out of a rally or retire before the final day could still be allowed to score world championship points under a proposal suggested by motorsport head Max Mosley.

"I'd like to see a situation where, if a car retires on the opening day, like Marcus Gronholm did on Wales Rally Great Britain this season, he can still run and maintain the opportunity to win on the second and third days," he told Autosport magazine. "Rallying is supposed to be something the public watches, so what's the point in not allowing that car to run on Saturday and Sunday if it could have been fixed," he added.

"You could have put the car on a trailer, taken it back, fixed it and then carried on over the following two days. You're never going to win the rally but there could be a points system arranged to make this a viable method."

Under the present system, points are awarded only to those cars who finish in the top eight on the final day.

Reports provided by Reuters

  Upcoming Events Calendar

• January 1, 2004 - Dakar Rally, France, Spain, Morocco, Mauritania, Malo, Burkina Faso and Senegal
• January 23 - World Rally Championship, Round 1 of 16; Rallye Automobile Monte Carlo, Monaco
• January 31 - Daytona 24 Hours, Daytona International Raceway, Florida, United States