Dakar 2008 cancelled

[ProRally]

According to lots of sources, Dakar 2008 cancelled.
ASO will give press conference at 13.00 h in Lisbon....

[janneppi]

Apparently it's because there is a terrorist threat in Mauritania where four French tourists were killed last month. I guess it's too late to change the course to go around Mauritania then?

[Daniel]

I was just going to post this

[Sulland]

http://www.dakar.com/indexus.html

Sad for all competitors loosing a lot of money, and for us loosing out on the spectacle !

[tmx]

i dont watch darkar rally, but maybe they could have shorten the length of the rally.

[WelshLegend]

What a shame this is, I thought Sainz would have won it this year aswell.

[Tom206wrc]

Sad I was expecting interesting battle between Mitsubishi and Volkswagen

But if "god mad" islam activists are planning terrorist attacks in the region, it's normal to take care of safety for the participants...

[shurik]

That's really bad news This may lead to serious reconsiderations of Dakar 09 route as well.. Maybe it's time revive Paris-Beijing rally for some period?

[Sulland]

They should have been able to get a short version going. A lot of money down the drain for many...

[Grant_RSA]

its a really sad!

The financial loss for the competitors, as well as the people on the route, from what i understand they do benefit from the rally passing through their countries! Wonder if the terrorists take that into consideration.

There has been security issues for many years now, one would expect the organisers to have contingency plans in place to divert the race somewhere else. This may be very expensive to do, but i doubt it will be as expensive having to cancel!

I fear this could be the end of the Dakar! :-(