I had an email earlier this week from one of the founders of a new online TV station for motorsport lovers: RaceFansTV.com. The guys wanted me to have a look at the beta version of the site, to get a feel for what they had available. I came away impressed. Along with other clips, there’s the story of the 1986 Dakar rally, which Porsche won with the 959.
Dakar is my favourite event. The victory Porsche enjoyed here was not the desert racing cakewalk many people probably think. The race covered 15,000 kms in 22 days, across insane terrain. Imagine driving a car up and down a volcano for three weeks: very similar.
Parts of the film are harrowing: a 26 year-old female French motorcyclist in a coma being evacuated from the desert, and a competitor receiving head surgery in a makeshift operating theatre are intense examples of the risk that runs through this event, like blood through a vein. By the two-thirds point, 300 of the 480 competitors were out and Thierry Sabine, inventor of the Dakar, was dead: lost in a helicopter crash, while out looking for stragglers in an enormous sandstorm.
As Ickx (driving 185, above) later says: “when you sign the entry form, you are agreeing to take part in the most demanding physical and psychological (test) and the hardest race, that is related to nothing else. You have no right to complain.”
Much of the voice-over is stiffer than a flagpole, and the royalty-free music is aggravatingly ’80s, but there is no doubt that the cameramen on this 90-minute film knew their stuff. There is some beautiful footage here, with lots of hugely atmospheric film of the 959s in more than a few places.
RaceFansTv is a great concept, and I’m sure it’ll be a success but, whether you’re interested in the channel or not, do this one thing. Set 90 minutes aside one evening this week, get a laptop and some headphones and watch the story of the 1986 Dakar. It’ll teach you something about the resilience of Porsche in competition, the commitment of Porsche’s factory drivers and perhaps even something about a Porsche owner: yourself. That’s the kind of TV I could watch all day, every day.
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