2010 Dakar could be run late February!

Just found this is an article on the SBS site about where they were planning to run the 2010 Rally.

Kalmanovitz added the 2010 race, which could be held towards the end of February, was unlikely to go back to its traditional format in West Africa because of a worsening security situation.

Easy way to take the competition out.

Here's a link to the full story
http://www.sbs.com.au/dakar2009/news/article/a/207/h/

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Permalink Reply by Timothy Wyant on January 17, 2009 at 3:22pm

Robby would do Dakar over two/three NASCAR races, especially if he does not come close to competing for the chase here in 2009. He's much more competitive in Dakar than he is in the Cup series. This year proves he's a serious challenger for the overall when the race leaves the roads!

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Permalink Reply by jack on January 17, 2009 at 3:37pm

I don't know about that.. Feb. is when nascar starts... the first five races set you up for the year as far as top 35 rule.. It would be a difficult decision for Robby.. unless he found a suppurb replacement driver.. maybe....

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Permalink Reply by Matty A. Teasley on January 18, 2009 at 4:58pm

Not superb, but David Gilliland is going to be available, as RYR is keeping Kvapil, and seeing that he went to the 38 to be a teammate to RG before Yates backed out on selling the team, I can see him filling in for owner's points purposes. He was going to be Rob's second car, after all.

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Permalink Reply by Lance on January 17, 2009 at 6:07pm

Doubt that the event will move due to the heat and tradition of Dakar being in Jan. Even more doubtful Robby would run Dakar instead of Nascar events. While Dakar is a passion and I understand that but Nascar pays the bills. Same reason he doesn't run the Indy 500 anymore. Hopefully none of that transpires and Dakar stays put.

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Permalink Reply by DB on January 17, 2009 at 4:15pm

Don't think the dude,(or chick) that write's the checks to make the #7 go in circle's would be too down with that one, with the exception of maybe Mr. Menard-but who know's, he might already have enough Menard decals going around with Yate's

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Permalink Reply by Turtle7 on January 17, 2009 at 5:13pm

If they run the southern hemisphere in late Feb., it will be like running in Texas in August. I don't think that the Bike riders will be able to take 6000 miles in 100+ Temp. Supposedly the heat was bad enough now.

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Permalink Reply by GrayAntiMatter on January 17, 2009 at 9:44pm

I'd rather that they just do what they said they were going to do last year, and quit calling races that aren't actually The Dakar, "THE DAKAR". And set up an ASO series with the title.

There is already a Rally-Raid event in Tunisia. so if they're going to go east-west across the north of Africa, it better be a long ass race.

But having an event in the Argentina/Chile area, one across North Africa, one in Central Europe, one in Western Europe (PAX) and even one in North America or eastern Asia should all be reasonable, if they're serious about creating this four to six event series.