In the world of auto racing, the Dakar Rally is a big one. The race has gone on for nearly 30 years (2008 would have been the 30th anniversary event) and draws thrill seekers, adrenaline junkies, endurance drivers and gear heads from all over the world. The Dakar Rally used to originate in Paris, and more people might know of it via its former name… the Paris-Dakar Rally, but for the last few years, the starting gun has been fired off in Lisbon, Portugal. Unfortunately, this year the starting gun has been holstered and the only thunder you will hear from engines heading south from Lisbon are coming from the airport. Reluctantly, the organizers of the 2008 Dakar Rally canceled the event the week before it was slated to begin as a result of some unfortunate incidents that occurred along the race route. Some of the incidents were directly related to the race and others were not, but in any event, the organizers of the Dakar Rally were faced with a decision that no race director ever wants to make.
It truly is a shame that the Dakar Rally was canceled this year and hopefully things will improve so that the race can carry on once again in 2009. Without a doubt, a lot of people in the overland community saw the cancellation of the 2008 Rally as a door being closed, however, in true TWBR fashion, we have seen it as an opening. The Rally makes a few detours out into the Sahara to test the fortitude of its participants, but essentially, the race consists of who can drive from Lisbon, Portugal to Dakar, Senegal in the shortest amount of time possible. It just so happens that our route through Africa takes us approximately along the same route as the now canceled Dakar Rally.
We were not really planning on heading to Portugal, but once we heard that the Rally had been canceled, we came up with this crazy idea to be the unofficial winners of the unofficial 2008 Dakar Rally. Lisbon was a 600 mile detour and it turns out, only a few of us made it… Steve and Mark stayed behind in Spain to try and deal with FedEx and Spanish customs and Brook, Craig and I headed to Portugal in the Sequoia in part to take in a country that none of us had been to before, but also in part to kick off the 2008 The World by Road Dakar Rally (TWBRDR). On February 11, 2008 at 3:00 GMT the TWBRDR was off, but not before dealing with some problems of our own. Not five minutes before we returned to the truck from lunch to commence the rally, the Lisbon police found a boot (wheel clamp) big enough to put on Little Pepe. It turns out we had parked in a loading zone but because none of can read Portuguese and the sign did not have any little symbols of things being towed away, we did not think twice about our designated starting line. Oh well, 30 minutes and 50 Euros later we were on our way and as far as we know, there are no other participants in the 2008 TWBRDR, so we did not loose any time to other competitors. Next stop, checkpoint two and a rendezvous with the other crew members in Algeciras, Spain for the car ferry to Morocco. Hopefully they know the TWBRDR is on its way!
