Dakar 2011: Volkswagen "blackmailing" Dakar-Organisation ASO for 2011.
""The ASO - organizer of the Dakar rally - has not yet released a decision on where to take place in 2011 edition of the Dakar. This delay is due to be multiple factors, but recently a succession of events will eventually have complicated the life of Etienne Lavigne and his companions.
For some time it was public that there were two hypotheses too strong for the Dakar 2011 - or a return to Africa, through Tunisia, Libya and Egypt, or stay in Argentina and Chile. But as noted above the recent events should be very confused in this equation.
"South America" has to mourn the tragic earthquake in Chile, which has claimed hundreds of lives and left the country in chaos, with widespread destruction of public and private property, infrastructure etc. This country now faces a lengthy and costly reconstruction process, so it is certainly easier to ensure the 7 million of Euros that the ASO required to take the exam on the same site in 2010.
Now the German "Volkswagen"-Company is setting the ASO "under pressure". "We like to have a stable reglement and the Dakar back again in South America, we are not interested to go back to Africa and are not interested in the new FIA Regulation" Volkswagen-Manager Dr. Ulrich Hackenberg told in Germany. This could mean simply: "We give you the most money and if you don´t rule this sport under our terms we are out!"
Or it´s simply a wish like every team could place, but interesting in this combination. On the other hand, the Volkswagen Company never had better results in Motorsport then in Dakar Rally, so why stop this? Rumors said, Volkswagen will start inside the WRC - a new career.
But - it´s also the discussion like in every year. What will Volkswagen do? As for Dr. Hackenberg´s descision, an Agent of the ASO answered directly: "We understand the problems of Volkswagen and their descision, not to spend more money in development of this Sport. We will talk to Volkswagen to find a solution."
Teams like X-Raid or JMB Stradale Mitsubishi "made their homework", accomplished their cars for the new 2011 Regulation. Now Volkswagen want to stop this, because they don´t want to spend more money in developing a new rallycar. Also Volkswagen is now more interested in WRC-Rally. We remember, in five years of the "real" Dakar in Africa Volkswagen wasn´t able to win the race... in South America Volkswagen was the only winner until now.
For the Company South America is an important market, also cars and trucks were produced here. As for all Work-Teams also for Volkswagen the Dakar-Rally is a giant PR-tool - and after winning two Dakar Rallies the self-given goals are "fulfilled".
But, in Africa, Libya is the problem. After a period of remission and improvement in relations between Western Europe and Tripoli, here comes a new period of tension. This amounts to a measure Switzerland, which forbade the construction of Muslim minarets within its territory. As a retaliation for the attitude of the Swiss, Muammar Gaddafi, head of the Libyan Government, declared holy war against them, and even took the administrative action to suspend issuing visas to foreigners originating in the Schengen Area, Switzerland where it is located.
There is already evidence including one damaged by this attitude, which is the Libya Rally, whose European participants eagertoday leave the port of Genova and Marseille - but not to Libya, they combinde their rally with the German "Libya Rally Raid" (which should be held in same time) and is now running in Tunisia.
With all this, the ASO should not be living easy days, because the alternatives contain problems. In Chile, the natural disaster that destroyed part of the country, Libya and the diplomatic war of religion, and thirdly, to returning to the traditional route towards Dakar Senegal can not be used due to groups of armed bandits, who the beginning of this year damaged the Budapest Bamako Rally, and are a constant threat to the safety of people (and assets) that are part of the caravan rally.""
Baja Racing News BULLETIN! March 1, 2010
Only months after one of the
greatest rally-races ever produced, the DAKAR organization may have to cancel its 2011 plans in South America. The deep, extensive damage in Chile may be unavoidable to overcome in 2011.With only nine months to recover the conditions critical to a successful rally plan, the DAKAR organization is grappling with the terrible reality that Chile, the important Atacama desert rally location in recent years, will not be able to recover in time.
Where can DAKAR go now? A state of catastrophe has been declared after an 8.8-magnitude earthquake struck early Saturday morning off the coast of central Chile. Damage and casualty assessments are still being made, but buildings, bridges and power lines are down in the capital of Santiago, as well as in Concepcion and other areas. Dozens of powerful aftershocks have also rattled the region.
With more than 700 people reported dead, rescuers smashed through fallen walls and sawed into rubble Sunday in an urgent push to find survivors through the catastrophic aire of the massive earthquake that roared through Chile a day earlier.
Some 2 million were said
to be displaced, injured or otherwise impaired by the disaster. Untold numbers remained missing. The U.S. State Department discouraged tourist and non-essential travel by American citizens to Chile and urged those already here to contact their families or register at the U.S. Embassy in Santiago.
Government forces struggled to contain looting in some of the most heavily damaged areas, dispatching the army to the task in Concepcion, Chile's second-largest city. Large parts of the country remained without water or electricity. Tent triage centers were being set up around battered hospitals as authorities implored doctors to report to work to attend the wounded and a series of strong aftershocks continued to rattle the disaster zone.
Chilean President Michelle Bachelet announced the death toll from one of the most powerful quakes on record had jumped to 708, nearly doubling as rescue crews reached remote, devastated towns close to the offshore epicenter. "These numbers will continue to grow," she said. In one such coastal community, Constitucion, as many as 350 people may have been killed by the quake and a tsunami wave that hit about half an hour later, covering shattered homes with thick mud, state television reported.
Boats were tossed from the sea like paper toys, landing with a crash onto the roofs of houses. "This is an emergency without parallel in the history of Chile," Bachelet said. "We will need everyone from the public and private sector . . . to join in a gigantic effort" to recover, she added, allowing for the first time that international aid will be welcomed. Bachelet's term in office ends March 11, when President-elect Sebastian Pi2/3era takes charge.
The magnitude 8.8 quake, which hit before dawn on Saturday, toppled buildings, buckled freeways and set off sirens thousands of miles away as governments scrambled to protect coastal residents from the ensuing tsunami. Even with a steady rattling of aftershocks, authorities lifted tsunami warnings Sunday after smaller-than-feared waves washed shores from Southern California to Hawaii and Japan.
But Chilean authorities acknowledged they had underestimated the potential for tsunami destruction here in places such as Constitucion and Robinson Crusoe Island off Chile. Looting broke out Sunday in some of the most heavily damaged areas, where residents complained they were hungry and bereft of basic supplies. Crowds overran supermarkets in Concepcion, about 70 miles south of the epicenter, and were making off with food, water and diapers but also television sets.
Several banks, pharmacies and gasoline stations were also hit. At nearby San Pedro, crowds swarmed a shopping mall. Police in armored vehicles sprayed looters with water cannon and tear gas and made several arrests, mostly of young men. "The people are desperate and say the only way is to come get stuff for themselves," Concepcion resident Patricio Martinez told reporters. "We have money to buy it but the big stores are closed, so what are we supposed to do?"
Bachelet, following a six-hour emergency meeting with her Cabinet Sunday, announced she was sending 10,000 army troops into the Concepcion area and elsewhere to restore order and assist in recovering bodies and searching for survivors. Using the armed forces is always a sensitive topic in a country that lived under nearly two decades of military dictatorship. Army to enforce curfew: On Saturday, Bachelet, declared swaths of the country "catastrophe zones" and later issued a 30-day emergency decree for the quake zone.
It allows the army to be in charge and to enforce a curfew. Hoping to ease panic, she said basic supplies including food will be distributed free of charge by supermarket chains in the largely soft-soil coastal states of Biob o and Maule where most of the deaths tabulated so far took place.
The mayor of Concepcion, Jacqueline van Rysselberghe, issued a dramatic plea for help to squelch the pillaging. "It is out of control!" she told Chilean television. Travel is difficult: More than 24 hours after the quake hit, reaching ground-zero sites was an arduous task. Traffic streamed slowly southward from Santiago along buckled roads and cracked overpasses, often making detours on rural side paths.
The bus station in Santiago was swamped with Chileans trying to travel south or send food and supplies to their families; bus companies canceled most trips because of road conditions. Fear of aftershocks: In the disaster zone, thousands of people slept outside, wrapped in blankets or with small campfires against the cold, forced from their homes by the structures' precarious condition or by fear stoked by the aftershocks -- more than 100 of which registered magnitude 5 or higher, according to the Associated Press.
Among the rescue teams reaching Concepcion was the 42-member Santiago Firefighters Task Force, which recently returned to Chile from Haiti where it performed the similar job of searching for survivors. Efforts in Concepcion focused in part on a new, 15-story apartment building that collapsed onto one side. Neighbors reported hearing screams from beneath the rubble and feared that as many as 100 people were trapped inside. Rescuers worked through the day Sunday slicing through concrete, consulting architectural blueprints and pulling survivors as well as bodies -- eight of them -- from the rubble.
At least 60 people were either rescued or emerged on their own power. Just a few yards from the rescue, the looting reached a fever pitch. At first it seemed to be the work of the poor but soon people of more affluent classes joined in. Some people made off with raw chickens and meats, even though they had no way to cook or store them because of lack of electricity and gas. The government has said half a million homes were destroyed or severely damaged and around 2 million people displaced, injured or harmed in some way by the quake.
Clinton to visit: U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said she would go ahead with a planned visit to Chile and was scheduled to arrive in Santiago on Tuesday as part of a five-nation trip. A dinner with Bachelet was canceled, however. Chile’s president-elect, Sebastian Pinera, has warned that damage from the powerful earthquake is worse than initially thought. “I want to warn Chileans that the magnitude and the impact of this earthquake and this calamity is much deeper, much more damaging and much more serious than we thought,” Mr Pinera said in broadcast comments.
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