Those ''terrorists'' (just a few random weirdo's most likely, not a perfectly organized group if you ask me) are now going: "WTF!? They cancelled it??" Giving them reason to try more of this stuff because it worked this time....

Quote from tristancliffe :

And no, that's not a request for lots of websites or youtube clips. You can post them, but I won't bother to watch them.

watch race to dakar with charlie boorman and you'll know. You'd be a briton homo with too much tea to spare to not to watch it.

/hides large crate of tea

Quote from ATC Quicksilver :

Attach machine gun turrets to all the trucks and cars and have them go in first. It would make it a bit more interesting, they could include a terrorist kill count into the final results.

that would require a crew of four in the trucks
The pilot, the navigator, the commander instead of a technician and a gunman...pretty much close to a tank

Just imagine how many hours do those guys prepared for the greatest off-road race of the world... And now some gay terrorists killed 4 poor students, and.....ehhh that sucks! I hate politics, I would send them to the Antartics...geez

Quote from davejah :

Is this the end of Dakar forever?

Not very likely terrorists to just suddenliy disappear so this hostile activity most likely will continue but luckily Africa is a big continent...

damn.... sad... this is the only rally i watch... i wanna race there

its sad for a privateers who had to raise a small fortune and its all lost. the bikes and gear will be out of date for 2009, travel costs, training costs, all gone.

terrorists win again

Quote from ATC Quicksilver :

Attach machine gun turrets to all the trucks and cars and have them go in first. It would make it a bit more interesting, they could include a terrorist kill count into the final results.

It's only a matter of time before one of my all time favourite films

Deathrace 2000

When it does happen, I'm stay far far away from swatching on the sides.

I'm kinda torn: I think giving in to terrorists is the worst thing anyone can do, as that means giving them power... On the other hand, if something would've happened, the organisers would've been blamed for not acting accordingly... So while it was the wrong choice imo, it probably was the most sensible one...

Quote from lEl E Talon :

its sad for a privateers who had to raise a small fortune and its all lost. the bikes and gear will be out of date for 2009, travel costs, training costs, all gone.

to be fair its not like being outdated matters all that much if youre not in the running for a top spot anyway

maybe they can race in march or may.... hey 2008 is just starting

Quote from Shotglass :

to be fair its not like being outdated matters all that much if youre not in the running for a top spot anyway

Afew years ago a privateer won it, I think?

I have no idea what im talking about....

certainly not
winning for a privateer usually means making it to dakar in one piece ... or rather at all

@ shotglass....

I don't know about a few years ago... But I definetly know that there have been privateer's who have won.

Quote from Shotglass :

to be fair its not like being outdated matters all that much if youre not in the running for a top spot anyway

yeah true realistically only ktm factory backed riders tend to be up the front. but you cant just have a dakar prepd bike sitting in the garage waiting for a year the terrorists get lazy. the bikes still such a small amount of what they end up paying in preperations anyways. alot of money lost and they still have to convince their sponsers in 2009 that it wont get cancelled again.

Quote from Matt0snap :

@ shotglass....

I don't know about a few years ago... But I definetly know that there have been privateer's who have won.

Maybe you're talking about Schlesser from France? He's always racing with his own buggy and he had won the whole rally several times. However he has always had a great sponsorship, he has always been sponsored by manufacturers like Renault or Ford.

I can't believe this, was really looking forward to watching the Dakar

They just cancelled the whole event instead of working around it because that way they got all their insurance money refunded. Money over passion - feels like a genuine FIA event...

They probably would have rerouted it, but it was too late to change all the rest stops. Only Al Qaeda is to blame here, not FIA.

Private racers borrowed a LOT of money in order to be able to take part in the Dakar.... Of course they have already spent some of it I think, and now they have to pay it back...Not to talk about the fact that they can't take part in it because of some n00b terrorists
That's soo sad, I feel for them all

Quote from pauliaK :

Maybe you're talking about Schlesser from France? He's always racing with his own buggy and he had won the whole rally several times. However he has always had a great sponsorship, he has always been sponsored by manufacturers like Renault or Ford.

I remember a few dirt bike privateer's who have won...But oh well

LOL, like shotglass said. Winning for them is mostly finishing the race....in one piece

Quote from Mackie The Staggie :

It's only a matter of time before one of my all time favourite films

Deathrace 2000

When it does happen, I'm stay far far away from swatching on the sides.

I'm pretty excited to see the re-make of that movie. I think it's coming out this year. Can't remember where I read that, though; a Film magazine of some sort. Should be a terrible, terrible movie, but I'll bet I'll enjoy it immensely

Quote from Tweaker :

Last year they had to skip some stages if I remember correctly... for fear of some rebels looting the rest areas or something.

I think it's just Muslim Terrorists trying to jihad the ONE major thing, briging money and sponsorship into Africa... They can't seem to think. Why don't they WORK with teh Paris-Dakar organisers and try to get their demands THAT way? Rather than disappoint Africa as a continent cos of some stupid Religious views. They can't seem to use their brain these Terrorists.

No suprise that Paris-Dakar organisers get spammed with Threats from Muslim Terrorists everyyear anyway, I guess this year, they didn't want to call the shots.

Quote from Niels Heusinkveld :

Those ''terrorists'' (just a few random weirdo's most likely, not a perfectly organized group if you ask me) are now going: "WTF!? They cancelled it??" Giving them reason to try more of this stuff because it worked this time....

They didn't want to stop it, they wanted to kill people. Everybody loses (apart from the people who don't die)