The Dakar was canceled after the French government deemed the threat was too great to allow the race to begin. The A.S.O. made it clear that the threat was not just in Mauritania, but rather to the whole race. When the French government pulled its support, it invoked "public interest" as its rationale. The A.S.O. is a French organization, so it did not feel it could continue the rally against the recommendation of the French government.The race was not going to be run. We were in shock. Hundreds of vehicles and thousands of people were no longer heading south to Dakar. Now the scramble was on to figure out how to get everyone, and everything home.
DAY 4, 1:43 PM
LISBON, PORTUGAL
The race vehicles that had gone through scrutineering were all impounded. The drivers needed paperwork to take the race vehicles back out, but many of them didn't have any place to take the vehicles now that the race wasn't going to run. Many of the motorcycle riders didn't even have their helmets.
After a day of shocking news, the larger teams were steaming ahead and making plans for getting everyone and every vehicle out of town. By my count, that meant at least 50 vehicles for Volkswagen alone.
The original plan was for everyone to check out of Lisbon and race into Spain. Now that the race was canceled, Volkswagen had to reserve dozens of rooms at another hotel just to give its people a place to stay.
I spent the rest of the day soaking up all the Dakar vehicles that were still in the impound. NASCAR race driver Robby Gordon and his teammate Ron Bailey showed up with their Hummer H3s. They were just being driven in from the airport. Gordon had to fly the H3s over to Lisbon just to get them there in time for the race. The trucks left LAX Airport on December 30th. Gordon and his team left on January 1st, a few hours before I did.