00:00The history of the Dakar dates back to 1977, when the adventure began.
00:12Motorcycle racer Thierry Sabine found himself lost in the Libyan desert during the Abidjan-Nice rally.
00:19Saved from the sands, he returned to France still enthralled with his landscape
00:24and promising himself he would share his fascination with as many people as possible.
00:30He proceeded to come up with a route starting in Europe, continuing to Algiers and crossing Agadez
00:36before eventually finishing at Dakar.
00:39The founder coined a motto for his inspiration,
00:42a challenge for those who go, a dream for those who stay behind.
00:47Courtesy of his great conviction and that modicum of madness peculiar to all great ideas,
00:52the dream quickly became a reality.
00:55On the 26th of December 1978, 182 vehicles turned up in the Place du Trocadéro in Paris
01:02for a 10,000 km journey into the unknown for the inaugural race.
01:07Among the 74 trailblazers who made it to the Senegalese capital,
01:11Cyril Neveu, at the handlebars of a Yamaha 500 XT,
01:15rode the opening entry on the honors list of the greatest rally in the world.
01:19Since then, the race has continued to adapt, going beyond what's been done before,
01:24winning over the public with stories of ordinary adventurers defying the wilderness with limited resources.
01:30Sadly, in 1986, the race lost its founder and inspiration Thierry Sabine,
01:36who died as he lived, chasing adventure in the Sahara Desert.
01:40During the running of that year's race, his helicopter crashed into dunes during a sandstorm,
01:46whilst out searching for vehicles.
01:48His legacy lived on, however, and the race that he inspired
01:52has grown into the biggest annual rally raid event in the world.
01:56A race that has taken place every year since its inception,
02:00except for 2008, when it was cancelled due to security concerns.
02:04With each year's edition of the race, new pages have been written into the history of this remarkable event,
02:11with each telling a story of extraordinary feats of human endeavor
02:15and featuring some names in legend.
02:17Names such as Stéphane Peterhansel, who has won the race an incredible 14 times
02:22with victories in both the motorcycle and car classes.
02:25Ari Vatanen, who went on to win the category four times, from 1987 to 1991.
02:32As well as Yuta Kleinschmidt, who in 1998 became the first female to win a stage in Dakar,
02:38later going on to do even better, when in 2001, behind the wheel of a Mitsubishi,
02:43she became the first woman to win the overall event.
02:46Looking back, it is a history that, to date, can be divided into three distinct chapters,
02:51shaped by the lands through which it has journeyed and the people it has touched.
02:56From its early and inspired beginnings, journeying out of Europe
02:59and into the harsh yet beautiful conditions of the African continent,
03:02the race grew in legend and stature, spanning 24 countries in Europe and Africa
03:07and winning over fans and competitors alike, all bound by a spirit of adventure
03:12and willingness to journey into the unknown.
03:14The success of the event and its growing worldwide popularity, however,
03:19also brought with it growing security concerns.
03:21This culminated in 2008, when the dark shadow of terrorism cast itself over what would have been
03:27the 30th consecutive edition of the race, forcing its cancellation that year.
03:31However, the spirit of Dakar, which had its origins on the African continent, was to live on elsewhere.
03:372009 saw the Dakar rise from the ashes, reborn on the South American continent,
03:45and lovingly embraced by the millions of loyal and passionate motorsport fans that lived there.
03:51It was a chapter that lasted a decade, in which time the race crossed the continent from the Pacific to the Atlantic,
03:57spanning Argentina, Chile, Peru, Bolivia and Paraguay.
04:01Each year, legions of fans, about 4 million, lined the roads of Dakar to watch competitors battle the unique and challenging conditions
04:09of the South American landscape.
04:12From vast deserts to amazing highlands, sold flats and floods,
04:17the land and the people of South America firmly etched their place in the history of the Dakar.
04:22In 2020, the Dakar rally entered a new era as it shifted to Saudi Arabia,
04:27marking the start of an exciting chapter in the race's history.
04:31The country's majestic and diverse landscape has proven to be a perfect natural home for this grueling event,
04:37offering a challenging terrain that tests the limits of both drivers and machines.
04:42Saudi Arabia's geography is a striking blend of vast deserts, rocky plateaus, coastal plains and rugged mountains,
04:50each offering its own unique set of challenges.
04:53This chapter has also seen the introduction of the Dakar Future Programme,
04:57an ambitious initiative designed to modernize and sustain the Dakar Rally
05:01in the face of new global challenges,
05:03with the ultimate goal of leaving a positive social and environmental legacy.
