The Central Europe Rally was a

rally raid Rally raid is a type of off-road motorsport event competed with different types of vehicles. Along with shorter Baja (cross-country rally), baja rallies, rally raid constitutes cross-country rallying. Both the Fédération Internationale de l'Aut ...

endurance race held in

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

and

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

following the cancellation of the 2008 edition of the

Dakar Rally The Dakar Rally () or simply "The Dakar" (), formerly known as the Paris–Dakar Rally (), is an annual rally raid organised by the Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO). It is an off-road endurance event traversing terrain much tougher than convent ...

, marking the debut of the

Dakar Series The Dakar Series was an annual series of rally raid off-road races, organised by the A.S.O. The series groups together events similar in style to the Dakar Rally and was founded in 2008 after the cancellation of the 2008 edition of the rally. H ...

.Central Europe Rally 2008: 2008 Edition > The Route
The

Amaury Sport Organisation The Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO and also A.S.O.) is a private company, founded in 1992, that is part of the privately-owned French media group Éditions Philippe Amaury (EPA). ASO organises the Tour de France and other cycling races, as well a ...

created this event to fill the gap created by the cancellation of the

2008 Dakar Rally The 2008 Dakar Rally would have been the 30th running of the annual off-road race. The rally was to start in Lisbon, Portugal on 5 January 2008, running through Europe and Africa until the finish in Dakar, Senegal on 20 January. The event was can ...

after 2007 killing of French tourists in Mauritania less than two weeks before the originally scheduled start of the race.Central Europe Rally 2008: 2008 Edition > Sporting Aspects
In the Cars category,

Carlos Sainz Sr. Carlos Sainz Cenamor (born 12 April 1962) is a Spanish Rallying, rally driver. He won the World Rally Championship List of World Rally Championship Drivers' Champions, drivers' title with Toyota Team Europe, Toyota in and , and finished runne ...

won his first Dakar by 2:01 over

Stéphane Peterhansel Stéphane Peterhansel (born 6 August 1965) is a rally driver from France. He holds the record for wins at the Dakar Rally, with 14 victories. He currently drives for Team Audi Sport. Biography Peterhansel made his Paris to Dakar Rally debut in ...

. In the Trucks division, Hans Stacey won his second Dakar. In the Bikes division, David Casteu won his first Dakar.

Route

The event began in

Budapest Budapest is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns of Hungary, most populous city of Hungary. It is the List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, tenth-largest city in the European Union by popul ...

on April 19 and finished at

Lake Balaton Lake Balaton () is a freshwater rift lake in the Transdanubian region of Hungary. It is the List of largest lakes of Europe, largest lake in Central Europe, and one of the region's foremost tourist destinations. The Zala River provides the larges ...

in Hungary on April 26, 2008. Below is a table with the locations of the start and finish points of each stage of the Rally, as well as each stage's distance.

Results

Motorcycles

David Casteu David (; , "beloved one") was a king of ancient Israel and Judah and the third king of the United Monarchy, according to the Hebrew Bible and Old Testament. The Tel Dan stele, an Aramaic-inscribed stone erected by a king of Aram-Damas ...

(KTM) 12:21:14Central Europe Rally – Victory for Sainz and Casteu - Yahoo! Eurosport UK
/ref>
2. Francisco López (KTM) +2:58
3. Alain Duclos (KTM) +19:39
4. José Manuel Pellicer (Yamaha) +21:20
5.

Cyril Despres Cyril Despres (born 24 January 1974) is a French rally racer and resident of Andorra. He won the Dakar Rally five times, in 2005, 2007, 2010, 2012 and 2013, riding a KTM motorcycle. He also won the Red Bull Romaniacs, an enduro event, three tim ...

(KTM) +22:50

Cars

1. Carlos Sainz/

Michel Périn Michel Périn (born 19 January 1957, in Saint-Mihiel) is a French rally navigator. Biography He started racing in 1977. In 1984 he turned professional as co-pilot of François Chatriot, and finished second in the French Rally Championship, cham ...

Volkswagen Race Touareg 2 The Volkswagen Race Touareg 2 is an off-road competition car specially designed to take part in the rally raids with the main objective of winning the Dakar Rally. Dakar victories ''NOTE: Because of the 2007 killing of French tourists in Mauri ...

, 11h18m08s
2.

Jean-Paul Cottret Jean-Paul Cottret (born June 19, 1963 in Gien) is a French rally navigator, best known for his seven success in the Dakar Rally alongside Stéphane Peterhansel. Biography Cottret's partnership with Peterhansel began during the 1999 event, in wh ...

Mitsubishi Pajero Evolution The Mitsubishi Pajero Evolution is an off-road competition car based on the Mitsubishi Pajero. It was specially designed to take part in the rally raids with the main objective of winning the Dakar Rally. In addition to those produced for competit ...

, + 2.01m
3. Dieter Depping/Timo Gottschalk, Volkswagen Race Touareg 2, + 6.34m
4.

Luc Alphand Luc Alphand (born 6 August 1965) is a former World Cup alpine ski racer from France. He specialized in the speed events and later became a race car driver. Ski racing Born in Briançon (Hautes-Alpes), Alphand was world junior champion in 19 ...

/Gilles Picard, Mitsubishi Pajero Evolution, + 7.28m
5.

Carlos Sousa Two tiger attacks occurred at the San Francisco Zoo, in 2006 and 2007, both involving a female Siberian tiger named Tatiana (June 27, 2003 – December 25, 2007). In the first incident, a zookeeper was bitten on the arm during a public feed ...

/Andreas Schulz, Volkswagen Race Touareg 2, + 33.45m
6. Bruno Saby/Alain Guehennec,

BMW X3 The BMW X3 is an SUV manufactured by BMW since 2003, based on the BMW 3 Series platform. BMW markets the car as a ''Sports Activity Vehicle'', the company's proprietary descriptor for its X-line luxury vehicles. The first-generation X3 was des ...

CC, + 46.30m
7.

Robert Baldwin Robert Baldwin (May 12, 1804 – December 9, 1858) was an Upper Canadian lawyer and politician who with his political partner Louis-Hippolyte Lafontaine of Lower Canada, led the first responsible government ministry in the Province of Canada. ...

/Kevin Heath,

Hummer H3 The Hummer H3 is an off-road vehicle that was produced from 2005 to 2010 by General Motors. The smallest model of the Hummer lineup, it was offered as a 5-door SUV or a 4-door pickup truck known as the H3T. Unlike the larger Hummer H1, H1 and Hum ...

, + 56.02m
8.

Philippe Gache Philippe Gache (born 31 May 1962, Avignon, France) is a French racing driver. He has raced in a number of disciplines, but for the last 20 years (as of 2006) has specialized in off-road racing. In 1992 he competed in the Indianapolis 500, but cra ...

/François Flick, SMG, + 1h07m08s
9.

Miroslav Zapletal Miroslav may refer to: * Miroslav (given name), a Slavic masculine given name * ''Young America'' (clipper) or ''Miroslav'', an Austrian clipper ship in the Transatlantic case oil trade * Miroslav (Znojmo District), a town in the Czech Republic S ...

/Valdimir Nemajer, Mitsubishi L200, + 1h12m19s
10.

Robby Gordon Robert Wesley Gordon (born January 2, 1969) is an American semi-retired auto racing driver. He has raced in NASCAR, Championship Auto Racing Teams, CART, the IndyCar Series, the Trans-Am Series, International Motor Sports Association, IMSA, Inter ...

/Andy Grider, Hummer H3, + 1h25m38s

Trucks

1. Hans Stacey, Eddy Chevaillier, Bernard der Kinderen,

MAN A man is an adult male human. Before adulthood, a male child or adolescent is referred to as a boy. Like most other male mammals, a man's genome usually inherits an X chromosome from the mother and a Y chromosome from the f ...

TGA, 11:43:20
2. Wulfer van Ginkel, Daniël Bruinsma, Richard de Rooy,

GINAF GINAF (legally GINAF Trucks Nederland BV) is a Dutch truck manufacturer which produces trucks mainly for heavy duty off-road transport, construction and agricultural work. About 250 trucks are made each year in the company's factory in Veenenda ...

X2222, +0:33:43
3. Aleš Loprais, Ladislav Lála, Milan Holáň,

Tatra T815 The Tatra 815 is a truck family, produced by Czech company Tatra. It uses the traditional Tatra concept of rigid backbone tube and swinging half-axles giving independent suspension. The vehicles are available in 4x4, 6x6, 8x8, 10x8, 10x10, 1 ...

-2, +0:53:18
4. Marek Spáčil, Jiří Žák, Zdeněk Němec, LIAZ 151154, +1:27:42
5. Marco Dono, Andrea Bettiga, Angelo Fumagalli,

Iveco Iveco S.p.A., an acronym for Industrial Vehicles Corporation, is an Italian multinational transport vehicle manufacturing company with headquarters in Turin, Italy. It designs and builds light, medium, and heavy Commercial vehicle, commercial veh ...

, +1:28:27

References

{{Dakar Rally Rally raid races Central Central