Take Your Pick

The big race starts in just a couple of days!

Looking for a 3-peat are Volkswagen with their race Touareg:

We've already seen BMW's newest entry (the Mini... which is really just as much X3 as it is Mini). But they've also got their usual fleet of X5s:

The French Team Dessoude will be entering their usual selection of Nissans: (the interesting stuff starts at about 2:20)

And, of course, Robby Gordon will be back in his Hummer!

Get Ready for it...

For me one of the biggest highlights of the sporting year is the annual Dakar Rally.

For those of you unfamiliar with this extraordinary event, it is a 16 DAY rally race including motorbikes, quads, SUVs, and big trucks. This year the rally returns to Argentina and Chile.

Normally I've been a Mitsubishi guy, but with Mitsubishi's withdrawal a few years ago I've taken up cheering for the BMW X-Raid team... especially once I saw that they were entering a MINI in this year's race!!!

If you care, follow the race on OLN or on their YouTube channel. This year's race runs from Jan.1-16.

The Power of Fear

This last Friday I received some depressing news: the 2008 Dakar Rally was cancelled.

Those of you who know me know that I am a huge rally racing fan. All year long I look forward to January because I know the Dakar is coming.

For those of you who don't care about rally racing or sports in general please bear with me; this is going somewhere. Just feel free to skip the following paragraph.


For those of you unfamiliar with the Dakar Rally here is what it is all about: The Dakar Rally is biggest rally event in the world. Hundreds of racers on motorbikes, SUVs, and big semi-trucks embark on an epic 20 day race across 6000 kms of desert. This year they were to begin in Lisbon, Portugal and travel from Portugal through Spain, Morocco, Western Sahara, Mauritania, and ending in Dakar, Senegal. The video below (although it's a few years old now) should give you a good idea of what I'm talking about.


Welcome back to those of you who skipped the previous paragraph. The reason I'm posting about this topic is because of the reason why this year's Dakar Rally was cancelled: the race was being targetted by terrorists linked with Al-Quaeda.

The ASO (the governing body of the Dakar Rally) received threats from an extremist Islamic group saying that they would attack the participants and spectators of this year's Dakar Rally should it go ahead. So the race was cancelled. Read all about it here.

Whenever things like this happen it is frequently noted that "the terrorists win."

I hate that. Fear should never win.

Simply by threatening; by injecting fear into the populace they can shut down our way of life.

How can we combat fear?
John says that "perfect love casts out fear" (1 Jn 4:18) but how does that work itself out with terrorism and fear-mongering?

Was cancelling the race the right decision? Why?
Was Mitsubishi going to win again or did Volkswagen have a chance?