Dakar Rally Race

It has been confirmed that in 2018, Dakar Rally will commence on January 6, 2018, in Lima, a city in Peru. Its completion will be two weeks after that, in Argentina, having traveled through via Bolivia. This was according to an announcement which was made by its coordinators. The 40th annual edition of this prestigious off-road race will be the 10th to take place in South America. Its track traces the Pacific drift, and then curves sharply inland into Argentina, where its conclusion will be hosted January 20, 2018, in Cordoba. Initially conceived as an African off-road rally race, The Dakar had to be exported to South America back in 2009, after terrorism fears compelled the 2008 Dakar organizers to divert the event to Mauritius, just a day before it was due to commence. We can expect to hear the key players and notable stages by November 2017.

A possible spanner in the works could be El Nino phenomenon, which seems to foreshadow some tricky rainy seasons heading straight for Peru and causing a great deal of concern to the Dakar Rally powers-that-be. Deluges and flooding downpours have already claimed the lives of many Peruvians in 2017.

One thing’s for sure, it’s set to be a nail-biting event for fans of racing and race betting alike. 2009 was the first time the event was officially held in South America, which was its 31st annual event. It saw Marc Coma come out victorious on his bike, Josef Machacek comne out on top with his quad, Giniel De Villiers dominated in auto category while Firdaus Kabirov desecrated with his truck in that category. All in all, there were 113 bike riders, 13 quad bike riders, 91 teams of cars and 54 teams of trucks who entered and finished this incredibly tough international rally race.