Ten years after the first rally-raid world championship event “Dakar” took place in South America, the 2019 edition was held in an exciting yet challenging racetrack – Peru’s wavy desert.
Dakar Rally is a well-known, off-road endurance race. The terrain is much more difficult to compete on, than in any other rallying competition. Off road vehicles are used to deal with the unconventional terrain involving sand dunes, camel grass, rocks, erg, etc. This year, the rally-raid was spread over a 5,000-kilometre sandy racetrack divided by 10 different stages and stretched across a timeline of two weeks – from January 6 to 17 – challenging drivers to maneuverer through the defying silky dunes of the Peruvian desert to reach their finish-line destination. Commenting on the event, Alvaro Silva-Santisteban, director of the Trade, Tourism and Investment Office of Peru in UAE, said: “Peru’s expansive desert lands act as an ideal hotspot for adventure-based world activities and events such the Dakar Rally, making it for the first time a racetrack that is 100 per cent Peru, 100 per cent Dakar.” “In 2012, when Dakar first arrived to Peru, only the most outstanding competitors took the privilege of standing on the rally podium of Lima. The following year, fans felt an extra boost when they witnessed one of their Peruvian quad riders, Ignacio Flores, win the first spot in the championship in Pisco,” Alvaro added. Dakar 2019 took a unique twist this year where thousands of spectators and hundreds of rally racers – over 400 cars, 300 motorbikes and 200 trucks – worldwide gathered to witness the best drivers compete for the winning title. With the start and finish lines plotted across Lima, the Peruvian racetrack passed through six different regions in the country this year: Lima, Pisco, San Juan de Marcona, Arquipa, Moquegua and Tacna. The Dakar rally-raid world championship launched over 40 years ago and is watched by more than 1.8 million motor racing enthusiasts worldwide. This edition of Dakar was solely held in Peru, which gave racers and fans the opportunity to discover one of the plushest countries in the world. Peru as a country has a great spectrum of vivid colours and a rich river of many attractions born from different elements: traditions, cultures and tongues. In addition to that, Peru has a mixture of different heritages that make it one of the most diverse countries worldwide.