The REAL Amazing Race.

Just because I want all of you to squirm over not being able to read the next installment in Foxholes, I am going to make a post about other stuff. It is that time of year again, the official Dakar race. This really is the most amazing race you could ever see. They are showing it now on OLN. Seriously, this race is insane. It is a race from Barcelona, Spain, to Dakar, Senegal (Africa). Total miles is 5,565 in just under 14 days, and one day of rest. Vehicles are broken into three categories; Motorbikes. This field is dominated by KTM motorcycles, around 600cc. Speeds of around 100 mph. Cars. Cars in the classic sense that they have four wheels. They are not rally cars, or Baja trucks, but a kind of weird cross between the two. Speeds of around 130 mph. Last category, and the craziest, is Trucks. Picture a garbage truck driving through the desert at 120 mph, and you can imagine how much fun this sounds. This race is seriously nuts. It has less than a 45% finish rate. This year 3 people died. One team ran out of gas in a sand storm and was missing for 3 days. A famous rally racer from Europe, Collin McRae, rolled his car, leaving him without vision in his left eye. They say this is the hardest motor vehicle race in the world, and if you get a chance to watch it, you will see why. There are lots of crashes, which make for great viewing. This year marks the first year that any amount of Americans ran this race. Most notable was racer Robby Gordon. Finishing 30th overall, after suffering a crash in one of the early stages, where he rolled 5 times. He took about 3 hours to put his car back together before continuing on. In short, this is an insane race across two continents, that cause massive injuries to vehicles and people. So check it out, and I am sure you will be as hooked as I am.