The A.S.O. has been organizing their Dakar Rallye in South America since 2009, after the killing of French tourists in Mauritania Christmas 2007 forced the cancellation of the 2008 Dakar Rally which was scheduled to start in Lisboa. Although having an off-year and drastically changing the venue, it still is the biggest and most important Rally Raid. Manufacturers keep designing race crafts just for this event.
One has to wonder what the inventor of the Dakar Rally Thierry Sabine, would think of the drastic changes of 2009. Nowadays a different organisation follows the footsteps of the original creator, who died in a helicopter crash during the Rally of 1986, again to Dakar. It is officially called the
Africa Eco Race, subtitleing itself
The Real Race. Some competitors also call it the
Big Dakar and the competition in South America the
Little Dakar.
The 2013 Edition started with the Scrutering in Saint-Cypres, France, followed by 5 stages in Morocco, 4 stages in Mauritania and finishing with two stages in Senegal. The competition was held in two categories, Bike/Quad and Car/Truck, which featured several subclasses. Also a Classic Car category saw two Porsche arriving in Dakar.
Martin Fontyn from Belgium won the
King's categorythe Bike race on KTM, in front of Gillaume Martens (Netherlands, KTM) and Patrick Arnoult (France, Honda). The car race was won for the fifth time in a row by two-time world sportscar champion Jean-Louis Schlesser (France, Schlesser Original) and his co-driver Cyril Esquirol (France). Yves Fromont/Jean Fromont (France/France, Buggy) and Joost van Cauwenberge/Jacques Castelein (Belgium/Belgium, Toyota) round up the podium positions. Anton Shibalov/Evgeny Yakovlev/Dimitry Sotnikov (Russia/Russia/Russia, Kamaz) won the truck class in front of Tomas Tomecek/Vojtech Moravek (Czech Republic/Czech Republic, Tatra) and Elisabete Jacinto/Jose Marques/Marco Cochinho (Portugal/Portugal/Portugal, MAN).
Results
[youtube]
33 cars, 19 bikes, 7 trucks and the two Porsche finished the rallye. The season continues with the FIA Cross-Country Rallye World Cup starting in April, where Schlesser seeks to win his 6th World Cup. Beginning in Febuary Red Bull's Austrian television channel Servus TV will air a five-part documentary, probably the biggest media coverage the race gets. It will focus on 6th place Klaus Kinigadner and Austrian actors Gregor Bloéb and Tobias Moretti who were racing for the team of motocross world champion and Wings-for-Life co-founder Heinz Kinigadner, Klaus' brother. All stage summaries can be found on the YouTube channel of
basbas0206.
Image: Africa Eco Race
Already missed him in the Dakar rally with his buggy. 
