Dakar Rally 1979

The 1979 Dakar Rally was the first edition of the Dakar Rally . It began on December 26, 1978 in Paris and ended on January 14, 1979 in Dakar .

The route ran for around 10,000 kilometers through France , Algeria , Niger , Mali , Upper Volta and Senegal .

Attendees

Of the 182 vehicles that started (80 cars, 90 motorcycles and 12 trucks), 74 made it to the finish. There were also some women among the participants, in addition to seven female motorcyclists, Dominique Fougerouse, Christine Beckers and Marguerite Ondarts were also at the start, who achieved 41st place overall and 16th place in the car classification with their Toyota Land Cruiser .

Already there was Hubert Auriol , the 1981 and 1983 the motorcycle and in 1992 the auto competition was won and was from 1995 to 2003 director of the Dakar Rally. The popular French radio presenter Max Meynier reported every evening as a participant for RTL live from his Toyota Land Cruiser.

A curiosity is the participation of Philippe Hayat, Jean-Pierre Domblides and Daniel Nolan with a Renault KZ 11 CV , the same model with which the French commander Etienne drove the 18,000-kilometer route from Oran to Cape Town in 36 days in 1927 . The three reached the finish in Dakar in 71st place.

The overall winner of the rally was the French motorcyclist Cyril Neveu on a Yamaha XT 500 , followed by Gilles Compte and Philippe Vassard.

The Frenchman Alain Génestier, who lives in the Ivory Coast , was the first to reach the destination. A few days before the end of the rally he was still in the lead of the overall standings, but after he got stuck with his Range Rover and was only able to free himself again after some time, he was overtaken by three motorcyclists and finally finished the rally in fourth place . There was no separate evaluation of the different categories at that time, but Génestier was subsequently listed as the first winner in the car category.

The fastest woman was Martine de Cortanze , who took 19th place with her Honda 250 XLS .

Incidents

The first accident happened just 60 km after the start, when Corinne Koppenhague with her Suzuki 370 SP hit a car that was braking hard. With a broken foot, she drove to Marseille before giving up the race.

In addition to numerous other accidents, the premiere of the Dakar Rally also recorded the first death. The French motorcyclist Patrice Dodin was on his way to the start of the 4th stage with an unsecured helmet when he fell and lost his helmet. He hit his head on a rock and suffered severe skull injuries. Despite immediate medical care and transport to a Paris hospital, he died a few days later.

Overall rating

rank	No.	driver	brand	category
1	12	Cyril Neveu	Yamaha	motorcycle
2	2	Gilles Comte	Yamaha	motorcycle
3	23	Philippe Vassard	Honda	motorcycle
4th	162	Alain Génestier Joseph Terbiaut Jean Lemordant	Range Rover	automobile
5	131	Claude Marreau Bernard Marreau	Renault	automobile
6th	62	Alain Schaecht	Honda	motorcycle
7th	143	Cesare Giraudo Antonio Cavalleri Mario Cavalleri	Fiat	automobile
8th	3	Christian Rayer	Yamaha	motorcycle
9	141	Tommaso Carletti Amarilli Carletti	Fiat	automobile
10	134	Alain Vandekerkhove Gérard Dutertry Daniel Pichot	Toyota	automobile
11	73	Jacques Maitrot	Honda	motorcycle
12	65	Hubert Auriol	Yamaha	motorcycle
13	21st	Bernard Neimer	Honda	motorcycle
14th	34	Bernard Atanne	Honda	motorcycle
15th	64	Laurent Gomis	Suzuki	motorcycle
16	100	Hubert Rigal Dominique Rochette	Range Rover	automobile
17th	140	Agostino Tocci Carlo Fucci	Fiat	automobile
18th	125	Guy Chambily Michel Desaunay	Toyota	automobile
19th	41	Martine de Cortanze	Honda	motorcycle
20th	16	Jean Pierre Dos Reis	Honda	motorcycle
21st	74	Guy Albaret	Yamaha	motorcycle
22nd	70	Alain Padou	Honda	motorcycle
23	150	Jean-Jacques Advises Robert Ignazi	Toyota	automobile
24	55	Alain Martin	Honda	motorcycle
25th	139	Philippe Catel Anne Catel	Range Rover	automobile
26th	121	Michel Delannoy Frédéric Harrewyn	Toyota	automobile
27	133	Henri Mouren Henri Braquet	Toyota	automobile
28	132	Pierre Minonzio Jean-Louis Ledentu	Lada	automobile
29	26th	Henri Gabrelle	Honda	motorcycle
30th	58	Eric Popineau	Honda	motorcycle
31	142	Franco Arbizzi Giovanni Crappolo	Fiat	automobile
32	17th	Patrice Taravella	Honda	motorcycle
33	76	Pierre Berty	Yamaha	motorcycle
34	29	Marie Ertaud	Yamaha	motorcycle
35	13	Patrick Beaufront	Yamaha	motorcycle
36	54	Bernard Gautier	Honda	motorcycle
37	112	Claude Neveu Gary Carrera Gilles Maurice	Toyota	automobile
38	11	Yves Bon	Yamaha	motorcycle
39	47	Daniel Piton	Kawasaki	motorcycle
40	68	Didier Boucher	Yamaha	motorcycle
41	135	Dominique Fougerouse Christine Beckers Marguerite Ondarts	Toyota	automobile
42	107	Christian Duboscq Pierre-Emmanuel Froissart	Lada	automobile
43	10	Thierry Pascault	Yamaha	motorcycle
44	180	Jean-François Dunac François Beau Jean-Pierre Chapel	Pinzgauer	truck
45	42	Pascale Geurie	Honda	motorcycle
46	18th	Pierre Mengue	Yamaha	motorcycle
47	113	Jean-Michel Bordais Marcel Quie	Range Rover	automobile
48	83	Bernard Rigoni	Moto Guzzi	motorcycle
49	110	François Forestier Philippe Meneau	Toyota	automobile
50	62	Alain Vial	Suzuki	motorcycle
51	172	Jean-Pierre Kurrer Jean-Claude Henriet	Cournil	automobile
52	176	Claude Sezalory Casarini De Frémont	Toyota	automobile
53	117	Bernard Lemonnier Jacqueline Lemonnier	Toyota	automobile
54	138	Gérard Sarrazin Lucette Sarrazin	Range Rover	automobile
55	157	Dominique Fondrillon Marcel Schaecht	Toyota	automobile
56	106	Max Hugueny Bernard Trévidic	Toyota	automobile
57	104	Jean-François Piot Pierre Raux Jean-Pierre Boulme	Toyota	automobile
58	28	Max Commençal	Yamaha	motorcycle
59	192	Daniel Petit Françis Mare	Unic	truck
60	101	Maurice Calamel Michel Calamel	Land Rover	automobile
61	175	René Banino Henri Legourriérec	Toyota	automobile
62	166	Jean Dominique Clément Anne Clément	Land Rover	automobile
63	72	Guy Leconte	Yamaha	motorcycle
64	57	Thierry Roghe	Honda	motorcycle
65	19th	Grégoire Verhaeghe	Honda	motorcycle
66	171	Philippe Chapel Sannier Yves Belleville	Range Rover	automobile
67	174	Michel Puren Pierre Dumas	Range Rover	automobile
68	170	Gil Guillot Patrice Pradeau	Cournil	automobile
69	164	Olivier Turcat Dominique de Araujo	Cournil	automobile
70	118	Pierre Chamagne Raymond Thérage	Peugeot	automobile
71	103	Daniel Nollan Philippe Hayat Jean-Pierre Domblides	Renault	automobile
72	187	Alain Mekki Jean Neault	Unic	truck
73	165	Marc André Philippe Puyfoulhoux	Peugeot	automobile
74	127	Pierre Bouille Gilles Morel	Renault	automobile

Web links

Commons : Dakar Rally 1979  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Dakar d'antan (Paris – Dakar Rally 1979–1985)
• Concurrentes du Paris-Dakar (interviews with participants before the rally) on ina.fr
• Paris-Dakar c'est fini (reports and interviews after the end of the rally on ina.fr)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c} History of Dakar - RETROSPECTIVE 1979–2007. (PDF) dakar.com, archived from the original on May 21, 2011 ; accessed on September 22, 2018 . 
2. ↑ 1979 Dominique FOUGEROUSE / Christine BECKERS / Marguerite ONDARTS - TOYOTA BJ n ° 135. dakardantan.com, accessed September 22, 2018 . 
3. ↑ Qu'est devenu le premier vainqueur auto du Dakar? ouest-france.fr, accessed on September 22, 2018 . 
4. ↑ The Story of the First Dakar Rally - 1979. advjoe.ca, accessed on September 22, 2018 . 
5. ↑ Patrice Dodin. www.motorsportmemorial.org, accessed on July 3, 2019 (English).  
6. ^ Paris-Dakar 1979 - Classement. dakardantan.com, accessed September 26, 2018 .