Ron Kantowski on the cancellation of a car race that’s always deadly dangerous, but this year was too much so

By Ron Kantowski (contact)

Thursday, Jan. 10, 2008 | 2 a.m.

Part of the reason the Indianapolis 500 is known as “the ultimate test of man and machine” is that there are so many things that can put you out of the race.

Engine. Gearbox. Suspension. Ignition. Oil leak. Crash. Check Mario Andretti’s name in the box scores and you will find at least two of each under “Reason Out.”

You will not, however, find “Jihadist Suicide Bomber.”

The Dakar Rally, the granddaddy, mother and crazy uncle of off-road racing events all rolled into one, was canceled on extremely short notice an hour before tech inspection Friday. Intelligence reports revealed al-Qaida-backed terrorists had planned to attack somewhere along the treacherous 3,600-mile race route from Lisbon, Portugal, to Dakar, in the West African republic of Senegal.

The cancellation threw a giant monkey wrench into the yearlong plans of more than 500 drivers and teams who spent countless dollars and even more time to prepare for the race including two who make their homes in Southern Nevada.

Michael Petersen and Ronn Bailey say Dakar is arduous enough without Islamic militants training AK-47 automatic weapons on your co-pilot and chief mechanic.

But Petersen, who finished an impressive 23rd in his rookie Dakar Rally last year, said the teams were not made aware of the specific threats that surfaced after al-Qaida claimed responsibility for murdering four French tourists on Christmas Eve in Mauritania, where the Dakar was to spend eight days.

“Race canceled. Terrorist threats. That’s all they wanted to say,” Petersen said by cell phone Wednesday, kicking some sand of his own on the French organizers for not having an alternate plan in place. Running a couple of laps around Portugal would have been better than nothing, he said.

“If they decided that it was too dangerous to hold the race this year, then that must be the case,” Peterson said after the highly modified Peterson Motorsports/BF Goodrich Chevrolet was loaded back on its trailer in Lisbon, where it still sits. “That doesn’t help ease the disappointment or frustration. Everyone worked so hard to put this together. A lot of 16-hour days were wasted.”

Peterson said it was a shock to learn the Dakar had been canceled practically as he was putting on his helmet. But Bailey said he saw it coming.

He is the founder and CEO of Vanguard Integrity Professionals, a company that provides security software to hundreds of U.S. and foreign governments and their agencies.

In a statement, Bailey, who had merged his Dakar operation with that of NASCAR veteran Robby Gordon, said his sources had confirmed the security risk.

“The organizers made the right decision,” said Bailey, who has run in three previous Dakars. “It is a high-profile target and the remote terrain the race covers isn’t very secure.”

But like Petersen, Bailey was stunned upon realizing all that work, all that time, all that money were gone. It was like being stood up for the prom or Elvis leaving the building without singing a note. The Grinch had stolen Christmas, only nobody in Whoville was singing.

“Despite the danger, you can imagine hundreds of drivers and support teams that were like horses in a starting gate waiting for a bell that now won’t ring,” Bailey said.

The threat of terrorism is just the latest calamity to affect the often controversial Dakar Rally, which is contested over 16 days.

In 1982 Mark Thatcher, son of then-British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, and his French co-driver got lost and were missing for six days before being spotted more than 30 miles off course by an Algerian search plane; in 1986 race organizer Thierry Sabine was killed when his helicopter crashed into a sand dune; in 1988 a newspaper in the Vatican called the race a “vulgar display of power and wealth in places where men continue to die from hunger and thirst.”

Autoweek magazine claims 46 competitors have been killed by accidents, bullets, mines or exposure since the first Dakar race in 1979; others say scores of deaths related the rally have gone unreported.

Still, Petersen said if the race is held next year, he might go back.

I would suggest he consider putting some racing tires on that EM-50 urban assault vehicle Bill Murray drove into the former Czechoslovakia in “Stripes,” just to be on the safe side.