The 2023 Dakar Rally heads back to Saudi Arabia for its fourth edition on December 31 with the world’s best off-road racers facing 5,000 racing kilometres spread over 14 timed special stages before the chequered flag finally falls at Dammam on January 15.
The event is considered the pinnacle of the Rally Raid calendar. Rally raid, also known as cross-country rallying, is a form of long-distance off-road racing that takes place over several days.
The Dakar Rally adventure has its origins in 1977 when French motorcycle racer Thierry Sabine got lost on his motorbike in the Libyan desert during the Abidjan-Nice Rally. After navigating his way out of the desert, the Frenchman was determined to design a race that drew on his experience with a route starting in Europe, continuing to Algiers and crossing Agadez before eventually finishing at Dakar. Since that time, the Dakar Rally has evolved from racing in Africa to South America and now to Saudi Arabia.
The race consists of one stage per day comprising at least one “special” stage each (several hundred kilometres long), which may be on or off-road. The total distance covered is several thousand kilometres. The event takes place over a period of ten to fifteen days.
The classification of the stage is made up of the times set in the special stage plus any sporting penalties. The race requires precise navigation, which is done via a roadbook provided by the organisers and handed out at the start of each stage.
The starting order of each special will be based on the times set in the timed sector of the previous stage, including any sporting penalties (e.g. for speeding in link sectors or missing waypoints) incurred during the stage.
The 2023 Dakar Rally will be the longest route since 2014, participants will tackle 5,000 kilometres of special stages including a prologue and 14 stages.
The Prologue Stage starts on December 31, 2022, in Yanbu by the Red Sea with the field looking to make it all the way across – loaded with more dunes and potential pitfalls than ever before – to Dammam on the Arabian Gulf for a January 15 finish.
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