Lima finish for 2012 Dakar Rally – organisers

The 2012 Dakar Rally will be staged in South America for a fourth time, with next year’s route taking in the familiar terrain of Argentina and Chile as well as for the first time Peru, organisers announced.

The gruelling rally was switched to South America in 2009 after a terrorist threat in Mauritania led to the cancellation of the 2008 edition the day before the event, then known as the Paris-Dakar, began.

The switch of continents has proved a great popular and financial success. The 2012 Dakar will feature five stages apiece in Argentina and Chile and four stages in Peru.

“That’s 14 days of racing rather than the 12 days in 2011,” spokes-man Etienne Lavigne said.

There are three basic categories of entrants, motorbikes, cars or buggies, and lorries, with constructors investing heavily to prove the durability of their vehicles.

Volkswagen has won the car category in the last three years.

The race will start at the coastal city Mar del Plata, 400km south-west of Buenos Aires, in Argentina on New Year’s Day.

“Buenos Aires has been our point of departure but the idea of a coast-to-coast event, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, appealed to us,” said Lavigne.

“After a first day on sand dunes the race will go through the north of Argentina and will cross a section of the Andes,” he added.

“Then it will follow a similar course in Chile to the one it did this year, except that at the Peruvian border we’ll push right through the door instead of stopping.

“From our arrival in Chile all the way to Lima we’ll have seven or eight real desert stages.”

The race will end January 15 at Lima.

Since its arrival in South America the rally has enjoyed unhoped for success with 3.5 million fans turning out to watch the race in Argentina this year and a further 1.5 million in Chile.

Argentine authorities spent $6m organising the race and made over $180m through direct and indirect connected earnings.