eli@cvl.UUCP (Eli Liang) (01/16/86)
The following article was taken from today's Washington Post without
permission:
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The Death of an Adventurer
Sahara Crash Kills Founder of Paris-Dakar Car Rally
By Michael Dobbs, Washington Post Foreign Service
PARIS, Jan. 15 -- Thierry Sabine died as he lived, chasing adventure in the
Sahara Desert beneath the glare of the mass media.
A controversial Frenchman who inspired and organized the annual 22-day,
8,700-mile Paris-Dakar rally, one of the world's toughest automobile races,
Sabine was killed last night when his helicopter crashed into the sand dunes
near the famed west African caravan town of Timbuktu in Mali.
Sabine, who was not participating in this year's race, was searching for
vehicles stuck in the desert sands. The four others in the helicopter with
him--popular French singer Daniel Balavoine, a French newspaper correspondent
and two pilots--also died in the crash.
Race officials said the rally, which has attracted such celebrities as
Prince Albert of Monaco and racing driver Jackie Ickx, will continue, in line
with Sabine's own wishes. The leading competitors should reach Dakar, capital
of the west African country of Senegal, next Wednesday.
A combination of romance and danger, hardship and excitement, the Paris-
Dakar rally has been dogged by criticism and controversy ever since it was
founded by Sabine in 1978. Crossing some of the worst terrain known to man,
it has now claimed the lives of 15 people in addition to causing numerous
serious injuries.
Of the 485 trucks, cars and motorcycles that roared out of Versailles,
France's royal capital, on New Year's Day, only 185 were still in the race at
the beginning of this week. The course, which winds through Algeria, Niger,
Mali, Guinea and Mauritania, was already strewn with the wreckage of
expensive vehicles, some of them worth up to $100,000 each.
Nicknamed the "Megalomaniac of the Sands" by the French press, Sabine,
36, conceived the race as a means of testing participants to the limits. He
used his formidable public relations skills to turn the rally into one of the
main events in the European sporting calendar, with French television
stations competing ferociously for satellite rights.
"Sabine was not just simply the head of the rally or the director of the
race. He was someone whom one day you detested, and the next you adored,"
said French actor Claude Brasseur, whose car codriven by Ickx is now running
second in the overall classification.
"He died in the country he loved, on a rally which he created. His wish
was that, whatever happened to him, the race would continue," said Philippe
Bourserault, a representative of Honda Motor Co., one of the sponsors of the
rally.
A number of participants criticized Sabine for making the course too
difficult this year in an apparent attempt to re-create the excitement of some
of the earlier rallies. In recent years, the race has become more and more
commercialized as tobacco companies and sports firms pour millions of dollars
into sponsoring vehicles.
According to Brasseur, the helicopter accident was partly the result of
this overambition. Yesterday's stage was so difficult that many vehicles got
stuck in the sands. As race director, Sabine went out to look for them: In
high winds, his low-flying helicopter crashed into a 100-foot dune that was
practically invisible against the night sky.
"Sabine made the race too difficult--not just for the others, but for
himself as well," Brasseur said.
The Paris-Dakar rally has generated front-page news here practically
every year since its inception. In 1982 there was the great hunt for Mark
Thatcher, son of British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who disappeared
for three days in southern Algeria. Last year, there was the hoopla
surrounding Princess Caroline of Monaco, whose $800,000 super-truck got stuck
in the sand as soon as it reached the desert.
In the other years, spectators were killed by the side of the route,
journalists lost in the desert and participants brought back to France on
stretchers.
This year there has been more controversy than ever before. Scarcely had
the race started than a Japanese motorcyclist was killed in an accident
involving a drunk. This was followed by a row over cigarette and alcohol
sponsorship that was resolved only when television companies covering the race
agreed to broadcast messages disassociating themselves from the sponsors.
The large number of accidents and dropouts from the race provoked
headlines like "Massacre on the Sands"--but also intense interest in France
and other Western European countries.
A dashing figure in his white jump suit and long blond hair, Sabine
appeared to relish his reputation as a romantic adventurer leading a mighty
caravan into the desert, an image that led some of his fans to call him
"Jesus."
"Ten minutes before they leave, the competitors don't know where they are
going, but they know I will be there if they get into a mess. There is
complicity between them and me. Some of them even call me God--and I like
that," he said in a recent interview.
With Sabine dead, and criticism of the race mounting, there was some
doubt whether the Paris-Dakar would continue next year without him.
"Sabine has such an aura about him that this is more than just the death
of a man. it also raises questions about the future of the race. The man was
completely identified with the event," said Jean-Francois Avenier of Marlboro,
another cosponsor.
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-eli
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Eli Liang ---
University of Maryland Computer Vision Lab, (301) 454-4526
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