Cypher09

Do to threats of terrorism in Mauritania the 2008 Edition of the Dakar Rally has been canceled. Not to get all cliche but I think this qualifies for a "Don't let the terrorists win" type of thing, because by rolling over and running away thats exactly what they're doing.

http://www.autoblog.com/2008/01/04/d...lly-cancelled/

driver #8

that sucks, i love the Dakar Rally cause Robby Gordon goes over there and represents the NASCAR world quite well

Cypher09

Yea and that Jim Beam Hummer was completely bad ass.

Ducmann996

Why would terrorists want to attack a friggin road rally in the middle of the desert? I'm thinking they could find a better target then a group of guys driving like the wind through sand. Just my 2 cents.

But it is sad that they cancel a race as old as this just because of threats. I say leave it up to the individual teams to decide to race or not.

freq

I think f1 fanz summed it up best:

[QUOTE=f1_fanz,Jan 4 2008, 12:29 PM] One of the appealing aspects to the Dakar Rally has always been the potential for violence.

Cypher09

As morbid as it is I agree with what f1 fanz wrote. Wonder how may drivers/team members were "strapped" in previous races?


Edit: Apparently this was the breaking point for the race organizers.

"The Dakar Rally has been cancelled because on an attack that place on five French tourists on December 24. The group were on holiday in Mauritania and had stopped for a picnic beside the main road between the capital Nouakchott and the town of Aleg, 250 to the south-west, close to the Senegal border. The three attackers opened fire on the French party with an automatic weapon, killing four of them and seriously injuring a fifth. They then left the scene in a white Mercedes-Benz which was later found abandoned. A woman was later arrested for helping the attackers to escape by boat into Senegal. The tourists were not robbed and this led to the belief that the attack was carried out by an Al-Qaeda offshoot called the Groupe Salafiste pour la Predication et le Combat (GSPC)"

From http://www.grandprix.com/ns/ns19953.html

freq

Yea, I guess that makes things WAY different.

Cypher09

Not to trivialize the death of 4 tourists but if the potential violence makes it appealing then you can't be too shocked when it happens. It's just shifted from rival warlords and random criminals to organized terrorists which are prob. the same people just under a different name and or cause of the week.

The thing that gets me is how a country of 3,069,000 has a 3,000 man army? No wonder why there are machine gun toting maniacs in the desert shooting tourists and race drivers.

"Mauritania had mobilised its 3000-strong army to protect the rally."

Dr. WOT

This is a horrendous dissapointment for me, Dakar is my favorite part about early January. I set my DVR just last night. Damn terrorists

JDM 4shot

Going to miss the rally. Great event.

http://www.dakar.com/indexus.html

http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/motorsport/dakar/
The Eurosport yahoo has a lot of news on the event and hope for one in 2009