2008 Dakar Rally CANCELLED!!!

Source - www.crash.net

Heroes Legend: Dakar-Cancellation no bar to Hubert Auriol

January 21, 2008 -- The cancellation of the 2008 Dakar Rally raised fears among the organisers of other rally raids in Africa, but rally icon Hubert Auriol has decided to press ahead with the 'Heroes Legend' event scheduled to follow a similar route.

Auriol's event runs from Paris to Dakar, via France, Spain, Morocco, Mauritania and Senegal and, after contact with those involved and monitoring the area, will take place between 8-22 March as originally planned, despite the terrorist activity that saw its big brother canned at the last minute.

"Safety is fundamental in our event," Auriol explained, "The cancellation of the 2008 Dakar was a shock for the rally raid community, but we have to distinguish things. Dakar is a unique and incommensurable event compared to other rallies, so the general impact cannot be compared. We are organising a race that is, first of all, for amateurs. It is an event based on regularity, not on the speed. And that changes a lot!"

"This year's 'Heroes Legend' will be the third, but it respects the same safety norms and rules as a bigger event. Safety does not depend on the event's size, it is a state of mind.

"The itinerary we have planned to go through Mauritania is different from the Dakar, because we run in areas where the tourist operators have maintained all their trips. The 'Heroes Legend' participants' caravan does not have the same proportions as the Dakar one, and the competitors are more supervised and regrouped on a day. That makes it easier for the organization during the event.

"Finally, the authorities will be by our side for the whole event to organise the 'Heroes Legend' under the best possible conditions. The 157 competitors that have entered so far have given us their complete trust and we are doing our best to make this third edition as successful as the previous two."