Dakar Offroad Rally

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A 100-series driven by Jean-Jacques Ratet and Jean-Pierre Garcin won the T1 Diesel Marathon class for unmodified production vehicles.

2001: Paris - Dakar

Jutta Kleinschmidt and Andreas Schulz in a Mitsubishi Pajero won the car section of the 2001 Paris Dakar. Hiroshi Masuoka and Pascal Maimon in a Pajero EVO were second. Jean-Louis Schlesser and Henri Magne in a Schlesser Megane buggy were third, unable to stretch their wins of 2000 and 1999 to three despite a late charge.
Fabrizio Meoni on a KTM won the bike section, an extreme sport if ever there was one.
Karel Loprais, Josef Kalima and Petr Hamerla in a Tatra T815 ZER won the truck section. Loprais also won in 1999.

The finish was controversial with the buggies of Schlesser and Servia being penalised because they were considered to have "contributed to Masuoka going off the road" on the penultimate stage 19: The buggies started ahead of Masuoka, not behind him as should have been the case according to the standings. Masuoka subsequently damaged his Pajero while trying to overtake Servia.

There was a Paris start again, on 1 January.

2000: Dakar - Cairo

In a new development, the 2000 event, 6 January - 23 January, was run from Dakar to Cairo (recalling the 1975 expedition using four British Army 101's across the Sahara from Dakar in the west to the Red Sea in the east). The rally visited Senegal, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Libya, and Egypt. Competitors were air-lifted over Niger because of the threat of armed attck. The overall results were:
Bikes: 1. Richard Sainct (BMW) by 32 minutes from 2. Oscar Gallardo (BMW) and 3. Jimmy Lewis (BMW).
Cars: 1. Jean-Louis Schlesser / Henri Magne (Schlesser - Renault buggy) by 12 mins from 2. Stephane Peterhansel / Jean-Paul Cottret (Mega) and 3. Jean-Pierre Fontenay / Giles Picard (Mitsubishi Pajero).
Trucks: 1. Vladimir Tchaguine / Semion Yakoubov / Serguei Savostine (Kamaz 49252) by 16 minutes from 2. Radomir Stachura / Petr Gilar (Tatra 815) and 3. F. Kabirov / Aidar Beliaev / Vladimir Goloub (Kamaz 49252).

Toyota 100-series diesel LandCruiser.

1999: Granada - Dakar

First: Jean Louis Schlesser and Philippe Monnet drove a 4x2 Schlesser Buggy to victory in the 1999 Granada-Dakar Rally. Schlesser had been competitive with the Mitsubishi Pajeros in recent years but had never quite managed the win - until this year.
Second: Miguel Prieto / Dominique Serieys in a Mitsubishi Pajero 4x4, 34 minutes adrift.
1st Truck: The Tatra T815 of Karel Loprais / Radek Stachura / Joseph Kalina.

The Schlesser buggy of Jose Maria Servia / Thierry Delli-Zotti had held the lead early in the rally before dropping out.

1998: Paris - Dakar

In 1998 the 4WD Rally returned to something more like the original concept, i.e. it actually began in Paris, at Versailles. Sunday 18 January 1998: Jean-Pierre Fontenay, driving a Mitsubishi, won the Paris-Dakar Rally. It was his 15th year of participation. Stephane Peterhansel won the motorbike section riding a Yamaha.

• Cars:
  1. Fontenay Picard (Mitsubishi)
  2. Shinozuka Magne (Mitsubishi)
  3. Saby Serieys (Mitsubishi)
• Trucks:
  1. Loprais Stachura Cermak (Tatra - celebrates 100 years of manufacturing)
  2. Sugawara Ushioda Matsumoto (Hino)
  3. Koreny Lamac Kahanek (Tatra)
• Bikes:
  1. Peterhansel (Yamaha)
  2. Meoni (KTM)
  3. Haydon (Australian) (KTM)

1998 provided plenty of excitement, with competitors coming under fire from the Tuareg and a Tatra truck being stolen. A notable performance was a Nissan Patrol winning class T3 (relatively standard) and coming in 6th overall.

1997: Dakar - Agades - Dakar

Due to the political situation in North Africa, the January 1997 rally could not travel through from Spain and so took the form of a loop from Dakar out to Agades and back to Dakar.

Missing this year were the special super-fast four wheel drive rally cars. Present were the (just) very fast modified four wheel drives especially Mitsubishis, the motorbikes and the amazing 4x4 trucks.

1st: Kenjiro Shinozuka (Mitsubishi)

2nd: Jean - Pierre Fontenay / B. Musmarra (Mitsubishi)

3rd: Bruno Saby / Dominique Serleys (Mitsubishi)

4th: Hiroshi Matsuoka (Mitsubishi)

Mitsubishi team orders decided the final placings.

Uta Klein Schmidt (sp?) driving a Schlesser buggy became the first woman to win a stage of the Dakar.

1996: Granada - Dakar.

Citroen number 201 (Lartigue) winner of the car section of the 1996 Granada - Dakar rally.

1st: 201 Lartigue (Citroen)

2nd: 207 Wambergue (Citroen)

3rd: 206 Fontenay (Mitsubishi)

1986

Porsche 959 all-wheel-drives finish 1, 2, 6 in the Paris-Dakar Rally.

1984

Porsche 911 all-wheel-drive wins the Paris-Dakar Rally.

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