BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — The Dakar Rally, in its 31st year — and second year in its new South American location — is officially underway today with the first day of scrutineering. The first day was mainly devoted to North and South American entrants, including 35 cars, nine trucks, 39 bikes and 17 quads. The Dakar Argentina-Chile event starts on New Year's Day and will last for two weeks and travel 9,000 kilometers (5,592 miles).
The series of 14 stages starts and ends in Buenos Aires, crossing over to Chile on the west coast of South America and lasting until January 17.
In all, 184 bikes and four-wheel vehicles, 138 cars and 50 trucks are entered in the competition. The rally moved from the African continent to South America last year because of ongoing safety and security concerns for the participants.
Among the real-life entrants that should be of interest is Volkswagen's team. VW is looking good to repeat as overall champion now that Mitsubishi has withdrawn from the event in the wake of the global economic crisis. VW is fielding a factory team of five 300-horsepower turbodiesel Race Touareg 2s with Giniel de Villiers, last year's winner; Carlos Sainz, a two-time World Rally champion; and U.S. driver and last year's 2nd-place finisher Mark Miller among those at the wheel. VW's win in 2009 was the first for a diesel prototype, and the German automaker boasted 10 stage victories out of a possible 13.
BMW will field an X-Raid team of diesel-powered X3s with multiple Dakar champion Stéphane Peterhansel and former Dakar bike champion Joan Roma among the drivers.
Robby Gordon of NASCAR fame will run Team Hummer, a three-H3 team. Gordon finished 1st in class and 3rd overall in the 2009 event, and this will be his sixth Dakar Rally. Klever Kolberg of Brazil, a veteran of 22 Dakar rallies, will be the first entrant with an ethanol-powered vehicle in the event, a flex-fuel Mitsubishi Pajero Sport.
Internet viewing of the events will be enlivened by VirtualRallyGame.com, which will allow players to take off at the same time as the real competitors, face many of the same kinds of challenges and decisions, and profit or suffer by their choices. The VW-minded can enjoy Volkswagen's iPhone application for the Dakar Rally.
If that's not enough Dakar for you, Comcast's cable sports channel, Versus, will present 30-minute daily highlight shows at 3:30 and 6:30 p.m. from January 3-18 and a 30-minute competition recap on Sunday, January 24 at 3 p.m.
Inside Line says: Let the games begin. — Laura Sky Brown, Correspondent
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felonious says:
09:02 AM, 12/31/2009
Woot! Time-Warner gets Versus too. :D