Dakar Classic
Open-knowledge reference entry
The Dakar Classic is a historic motorsport rally raid that takes place annually as part of the Dakar Rally. Unlike the main rally, the Classic is reserved for older vehicles.
Introduced in 2021, it follows the same route as the Dakar Rally but competes on a separate course as a regularity rally.
History
The Amaury Sport Organisation, which oversees the Dakar Rally, announced the creation of the Dakar Classic in June 2020. Dakar director David Castera explained it was "important for us to honour the Dakar's pioneer" by hosting a race for vehicles from the rally's history. Teams also operate out of a bivouac with fewer amenities to resemble those used in the 1980s.
The inaugural race took place alongside the 2021 Dakar Rally. Former rally driver Yves Loubet and his co-driver Alain Lopes oversaw reconnaissance of the course, which had the same start and finish points as the main Dakar but ran shorter stages. Marc Douton won in a 1978 buggy that was built by Yves Sunhill for the first Dakar Rally in 1979.
From 2022 to 2025, the race was dominated by the Toyota Land Cruiser HDJ80.
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This entry incorporates text from “Dakar Classic” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.