Dealing with Dakar's demise

The Wheels preview last Saturday of the ultra-tough Dakar Rally said, "The Dakar takes no prisoners."

A week later, it's clear the Dakar itself has been taken prisoner, the 15-day event being cancelled for security reasons on the cusp of its 30th anniversary.

The Jan. 5 to 20 rally from Lisbon to Dakar, Senegal, in western Africa, had attracted at least one Canadian entrant.

Don Hatton, a 49-year-old insurance broker from B.C., was literally pushing his bike into the scrutineering tent when the announcement came down.

"It's very difficult to describe the devastating feeling," he said quietly on the Dakar radio site. "Words cannot describe my disappointment."

Terrorists murdered four French tourists in Mauritania near the Senegal border Dec. 24, killed three soldiers shortly after near Mauritania's northeastern border with Western Sahara, then directly threatened rally participants.

Mauritania, which gained its independence from France in 1960 and has a history of political unrest, was the scheduled locale of eight of the 15 stages of this year's 9,273 km Dakar Rally.

Local authorities have blamed a terrorist sleeper cell linked to a North African faction of Al-Qaeda for the slaughter of the tourists.

The French-based Dakar organizers, the Amaury Sport Organization (ASO), had been under pressure from the French ministry of foreign affairs to cancel the rally for safety reasons after the killings. In its cancellation notice ASO stated:

"Based on the current international political tension and the murder of four French tourists ... but also mainly the direct threats launched directly against the race by terrorist organizations, no other decision but the cancellation of the sporting event could be taken."

While specific stages have occasionally been cancelled or re-routed for safety reasons since the rally's start in 1979, this is the first time such a drastic measure has been taken.

To say that the news came as a bitter shock to the participants, gathered from all over the world after months, sometimes years, of preparation and untold loss of money and effort, would be to trivialize the impact.

When the doors were literally closed in Don Hatton's face, he was initially at a loss for a reaction.

"I can tell you, for me personally, it was overwhelming. When you think about the year of training, and all the hard work, and on top of that the $250,000 I've spent to get here, it's a blow. [I'm feeling] very deflated. I could see my goal, I could see my dream unfolding ..."

Hatton's problems were compounded by what he says was a seriously unco-operative British Airways, unwilling to cut him (or presumably any other competitors) any slack on their pre-booked tickets.

"You can't imagine the logistics of this rally, the cancellation, getting money refunded, and the equipment home," Hatton says. "BA is not being very co-operative ... at this time. It looks like we'll have to write off $12,000 to $14,000 in flights (after spending) $30,000 initially."

Another Canadian who was due to join Hatton as a rally competitor, Toronto-area aircraft controller Todd Davidson, was equally shocked, although he was at home. Davidson was ruled out of the rally because of serious injuries suffered in December during a training accident.

"It's mind-boggling to think about the amount of time, money, effort, and logistics (around the world) that have been put into this ... I mean, I'm a nobody, we're as grassroots as you can get, and we were a hundred grand this year. The ASO entry fee is $21,000, so do the math from there."

Davidson adds that even with his private effort, the worldwide interest (everywhere except corporate Canada, he says, where he tried to raise funds to help) is astounding.

"I can't get multi-million dollar companies (here in Canada) to even bat an eyelash at this, but I've got people from the other side of the world, from Australia, Holland and Germany, and all across the States, emailing and writing me because they're keen and interested in what I'm doing here.

"I'm sure the ASO would not make this decision unless it was the last possible decision to make. They were out of options, I can only imagine they were doing everything possible to find an alternative. It's a suicide pill for ASO ... the last resort."

Lawrence Hacking, who was the first Canadian to complete the Dakar Rally in 2001, was planning to follow the rally by car, as part of his plans to return for the 2009 event. We reached him via email in Lisbon just after the announcement.

"It was a very dismal mood around the paddock to say the least," he told us. "I am sure the complete story may never be told; the local paper reported that ASO was going to return 21 million euros."

Some estimates have been as high as 26 million, and unofficial information from within ASO blames the withdrawal of the insurance provider as the main reason for the cancellation call.

Hacking went on to point out that considerable humanitarian relief, which has been part of the rally for many years, was being washed out along with the event itself. Even though the event has been cancelled, some of that may still happen.

"There are plans to (still) try and take some of the humanitarian efforts into Africa. For example, KTM has four trucks packed with things like 40 wheelchairs. That is where the locals really lose; this side of the Dakar is huge, aside from the money injected into the local economies. Fifty per cent of the food is bought locally, 12,500 bottles of water are used daily. All this would have been in place already."

Can the Dakar, as a sporting event, survive such a blow? ASO says definitely: "The Dakar is a symbol and nothing can destroy symbols. The cancellation of the 2008 edition does not endanger the future of the Dakar."

Already rumoured is a rally through Eastern Europe later this year to replace it, and rally director Étienne Lavigne stated categorically that, "There will be a great event in 2009. We will start work on it from tomorrow. It could be another Dakar. It's a little complicated to imagine straightaway what will be the Dakar next year but we will work on it very quickly."

Late this week, ASO president Patrice Clerc told the French sport daily L'Équipe, "We will go very soon to Africa to talk of the future. But we will not play with security. The planet is vast enough to do 8,000 to 10,000 kilometres in 15 or 20 days in sandy zones.''

He said other desert zones in Africa or on other continents could serve as an alternative route. The Chilean government plans to submit a proposal next week to the ASO.

Davidson sees no reason why the Dakar can't continue.

"There's got to be other places in the world just as challenging and just as tempting in a different way. The spirit, the enormity of the rally could live on just about anywhere else. In 2009, if they say it's a go, and they open up registration, I'll be putting my paperwork in the first day."

 

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With files from Star wire services.

 

 

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