The 2010 Dakar Rally took place in South America on a route from Argentina to Chile. This two-week event is one of the largest in the world, and until 2009, the Dakar was held in Europe. Organized by the Amaury Sport Organisation, the Dakar Rally is a rally raid off-road event, featuring various types of all-terrain vehicles.

Dakar started in 1979 and has proven to be one of the sport’s most grueling endurance races. Hundreds of competitors enter the 16-day event, but only around half the field manages to finish.

The South American Dakar began on New Year’s Day in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The idea is to race an all-terrain course to Chile and back again. In total, 362 teams showed up to compete in the endurance race. 134 cars, 42 trucks and 176 motorcycles and ATVs launched from the podium in hopes of winning the race.

Not only do the drivers have to survive the exhausting conditions of constant motoring, but the vehicles also need to make the trek. Dakar is certainly large enough to break down even the most seasoned competitor’s will. The 2010 race took place over a 9,000 kilometer course, including 4,000 kilometers of special stages, gravel roads, sand dunes, a salt flat, and 3,000 kilometers through the Andes Mountains.

The giant Dakar course is equivalent to 24 Formula One races. Throughout the race, there are many accidents that happen on and off the road. In this year’s race, a spectator, Sonia Natalia Gallardo, was killed after the German Micro Schultis ran off the road and plowed into a group of spectators seated in the ironically named “safe zone.”

Dakar is broken down into four categories, so there’s more than one winner overall. You have the Cars, Trucks, Quads, and Bikes categories. In the cars battle, Volkswagens, BMWs and Hummers seem to do the best, and everyone else is essentially left playing catch-up.

In the cars category, the top three finishers were driving VWs – Carlos Sainz (1st), Nasser Al-Attiyah (2nd) and Mark Miller (3rd). Surprisingly, the only Hummer to finish in the top ten this year was Robby Gordon - NASCAR driver - in his Hummer buggy with an 8th place finish.

The bikes are what most people are interested in. Bike riders need to be in great shape to handle heavy two-wheelers through the incredibly rough terrain. On top of that, bikers ride solo, so they also have to be great mechanics. Any rider has to be able to fix the problem quickly and get back out on the road.

Only 88 bike riders managed to finish the race. Cyril Despres and Pal Anders Ullevalseter finished 1st and 2nd respectively, driving KTMs. Rounding out the top five were Francisco Lopez Contardo, Helder Rodrigues and David Fretigne.

Vladimir Chagin finished first in the truck category with a total ride time of 55 hours, and Marcos Patronelli bested the quad field on his Yamaha with a time of 64 hours and 17 minutes – 2 hours in front of the 2nd place finisher.