In Saudi Arabia, the 46th edition of the Dakar Rally in January 2024 will cover 4,727 kilometers of special stages – a special feature is the “48-hour stage “
The Dakar Rally is traditionally the first motorsport event of the calendar year. For the upcoming edition, which will take place in Saudi Arabia from January 5 to 19, 2024, the details of the route and participants have now been finalized
The race kicks off on Friday, January 5, with the prologue in Al’Ula in north-western Saudi Arabia. The prologue will be followed by twelve stages before the rally comes to an end on Friday, January 19 in Yanbu on the Red Sea.
The total length of all special stages (SS) at the 2024 Dakar Rally is 4,727 kilometers. Including all liaison stages, the “Dakar” 2024 is even 7,891 kilometers long. The rest day is planned for Saturday, January 13, in Saudi Arabia’s capital Riyadh.
The special feature of the 2024 “Dakar” is a marathon stage over two days. This “48-hour stage” will take place on Thursday/Friday, January 11/12, around Shubaytah in the south-east of the country
The official route of Dakar 2024!
AlUla – Yanbu
7,891 km (4,727 km of SS)➡️ Dakar2024 DakarInSaudi pic.twitter.com/HKXnFp6Dt2
– DAKAR RALLY (@dakar) November 20, 2023
On the 584 kilometers of the double stage, the participants must spend the night in the first bivouac they pass after 16:00 on Thursday. The marathon stage continues at 7:00 am on Friday. Which bivouac is the overnight bivouac will be decided by the pace of each participant.
A total of 778 participants (436 crews) have registered for the 2024 Dakar Rally, with the crews distributed across the individual vehicle categories as follows: 153 cars, 137 motorcycles, 46 trucks and ten quads. The other 90 crews are divided between the Classic category (80) and the Future category (ten).
The 2024 edition of the Dakar Rally will be the 46th in the history of the desert rally and the fifth to be held in Saudi Arabia. From 1979 to 2007, the Dakar Rally mainly took place in Africa, with the start in Europe each time.
In 2008, the “Dakar” was canceled without further ado due to the threat of a terrorist attack. The continent was then changed. From 2009 to 2019, the Dakar Rally was not held in Africa but in South America. Since 2020, the world’s most famous desert rally has been held in Saudi Arabia.
