Dakar Rally To Start in Budapest

There's good news for motoring fans planning on visiting Budapest, after a spokesman for the Hungarian government recently announced on the radio that Budapest would be the starting point for the famous Dakar Motor Rally in 2010.

The legendary race began life in 1978 when Frenchman Thierry Sabine got lost in the Senegalese desert - and had such a good time doing so he wanted to have another go. He began to organise a yearly rally, starting in Paris racing all the way to Dakar, with much motoring mayhem in between.

Principally on off-road event three classes of vehicle - bikes, cars and trucks - will race over road, mudtracks, dunes and other terrain determined to pip their rivals to the post.