The Dakar Series was an annual series of rally raid off-road races, organised by the A.S.O.. The series groups together events similar in style to the Dakar Rally and was founded in 2008 after the cancellation of the 2008 edition of the rally.
History
The Dakar Series was born in 2008, with the cancellation of this year's edition, in anticipation of a year of the A.S.O. program. To create a rally raid series affiliated with the Dakar, it will be part of a single calendar (the final date must be the owner of the edition of the rally raid for the next year). The first event that inaugurated the series was the Central Europe Rally, followed by the PAX Rally and which included a car, motorcycle, quad and truck.
From the second edition, further new events were added, with safety and organizational measures, and media attention, equal to those of the Dakar. In 2009, 2010 and 2011, the series consisted of a single event with the Silk Way Rally entering the calendar, which took place over the following three years between Russia, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan. In 2012, the Silk Way Rally was replaced by the Desafio Litoral, a rally raid held entirely in Argentina, and in turn replaced by two new events in 2013: the Desafio Ruta 40 (also held in Argentina and successor to the Desafio Litoral) and the Desafío Inca (which takes place in Peru). With the entry of the Desafio Guarani into the calendar the following year, the series reached a record number of three events, giving life to a preparation process in view of the Dakar to be held entirely in South America.
In 2016, after the cancellation of the Desafio Inca the previous year and the passage of the Desafio Ruta 40 to the Dakar Challenge circuit, there was only one event left on the calendar, making its debut in the series, namely the Merzouga Rally (which takes place over the of five days in Morocco). The following year A.S.O. also included the newly formed Dakar Series China Rally, bringing the number of events to two.
In 2018, the Desafio Ruta 40 and the Desafio Inca return to the calendar, while the Dakar Series China Rally comes out. With the Dakar moving to Saudi Arabia in 2019, the competition calendar once again features just one event (the Merzouga Rally).
In 2020, the Merzouga Rally was finally cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The organizers postponed it until its next edition on 2021, which it never took place. Since then, no rally has been held under the Dakar Series label.
2015: Desafio Ruta 40: 17-23 May
- moto winner: Paulo Gonçalves (Honda)
- auto winner: Orlando Terranova/Bernard Graue (Mini)
Desafio Guarani: 19-25 July
- moto winner: Kevin Benavides (Honda)
- auto winner: Peter Jerie/Laurent Lichtleuchter (Toyota) Desafio Inca: 10-13 September
- cancelled
2016: Merzouga Rally: 21-27 May
- moto winner: Kevin Benavides (Honda)
- quad winner: Clemens Eicker (E-ATV)
- sxs winner: Frederic Henrichy/Eric Bersey (Polaris)
2017: Merzouga Rally: 7-12 May
- moto winner: Xavier de Soultrait (Yamaha)
- quad winner: Nicolas Cavigliasso (Yamaha)
- sxs winner: Frederic Henrichy/Eric Bersey (Polaris)
2018: Merzouga Rally: 15-20 April
- moto winner: Joan Barreda (Honda)
- quad winner: Axel Dutrie (Yamaha)
- sxs winner: Bruno Varela/Gustavo Gugelmin (Can-Am)
2019: Merzouga Rally: 31 March-05 April
- moto winner: Adrien van Beveren (Yamaha)
- quad winner: Axel Dutrie (Yamaha)
- sxs winner: Nasser Al-Attiyah/Matthieu Baumel (Can-Am)
Dakar Challenge/Road To Dakar
Together with the Dakar Series, the A.S.O. also established the Dakar Challenge in 2011, a circuit parallel to but sometimes also internal to the Dakar Series (in fact, even the Dakar Series events can host within them a race valid for the Dakar Challenge circuit, as, for example, happened with the Desafio Inca). The Dakar Challenge changed its name in 2018, becoming the Road to Dakar.
Participants to be admitted to the Road to Dakar category must:
never having participated in the Dakar;
not having finished in the top ten positions of an FIM rally;
not being part of the FIA and FIA SXS priority driver lists;
not being part of the A.S.O. lists Elite SXS;
never having won the Road to Dakar in the past.
Thanks to this series of events, free registrations for the Dakar or automatic access to the selections for the following year's Dakar and other benefits are made available in view of participation in the final event of the season, reserved, in particular, for amateurs (as well as the debutants) best placed in the special ranking, in order to discover new talents.
