Dakar and Honda

The 29th Dakar Rally starts tomorrow (January 6, 2007) when 525 competitors from 42 nationalities leave Lisbon, Portugal to begin a gruelling journey across some of the toughest desert landscapes on earth.

One of the leading Brits in the race is Honda Racing’s Mick Extance who lines up for his fifth consecutive year to compete in the world-famous rally aboard a specially-preapred Honda CRF450X.

Extance, the highest-finishing British entrant last year, starts his epic journey from Lisbon, Portugal and hopes to complete a staggering 7,915kms traversing six countries, Portugal, Spain, Morocco, Mauritania, Mali and Senegal, in 15 days.

This year, 250 motorcycles, 187 cars and 88 trucks will compete and 41-year-old Extance, the only Englishman to finish the rally for the past three years, will be aiming for a top 20 finish in his class. Extance said: “I have a great bike, the best support possible and I’ll be aiming for a top 20 finish.

“This year I will be out there to race and not just finish. It’s one of the toughest challenges in the world, I am totally passionate about the rally and I am determined to finish it again.”

The Dakar was started by pioneering French motorcycle racer, the late Thierry Sabine organised the first in December 1978 when the first Paris-Dakar took off from Place du Trocadéro in Paris.

Since then the event has withstood many challenging issues mostly connected with safety and politics.

In 1986 the number of entrants soared to 603, while the event nearly perished in 1993 when only 154 competitors enlisted.

Since that low point the Dakar has recovered year by year and although both the name and the routes have changed, the spirit of the original event lives on.

Sabine’s vision says it all; ‘it’s a ‘challenge to those who go; a dream for those who stay behind.”