The Central Europe Rally April 20th - 26th was organised under the "Dakar Series"» certification, between Budapest and Lake Balaton in Hungary, crossing Romania consisted of an extremely varied and technical route. Nearly half of the total distance, 3000kms, were run in special stages. The opening of entries started in the first half of February all the major teams. BMW, Mitsubishi, Volkswagen, Schlesser and KTM were the first to support of the event of A.S.O. * (Amaury Sport Organisation)

The Central Europe Rally was the first event run under the "Dakar Series" certification. This certification will also be given to other races that offer the same high organisation and safety standards, strong participation and media attention as the legendary Dakar. With the Central Europe Rally, the aim of A.S.O. was to enable the competitors of the Dakar, which was cancelled on 2008, to enter a new rally with some extremely advantageous conditions and offer their sponsors exposure in a major international event.

VICTORY FOR DAVID CASTEU AND CARLOS SAINZ! The final stage of the rally lived up to expectations with the duel for outright victory in the car category between Carlos Sainz and Stephane Peterhansel. There was less suspense, however, in the bike race where David Casteu controlled the final stage to win this first Central Europe Rally as expected. The fifth to start on the final day was the Frenchman David Casteu (KTM) controlled his only rival, Chilean Francisco Lopez (KTM), throughout the 150 km of the last special to finally win, as expected, the first Central Europe Rally, the inaugural event of the Dakar Series. For the native of Nice, this first success as an official KTM rider was a handsome one too: he finished 2'58" ahead of his good friend, Chilean Francisco "Chaleco" Lopez (KTM), who was taking part in his first race for the Austrian team and in the 690 category. 

Third place in the final general standings, 19'39" behind the winner, went to Alain Duclos (KTM). In the last stage, the Franco-Malian amateur rider grabbed the final step on the podium from FrenchmanCyril Despres, who suffered a fuel problem. As a result, the winner of the 2007 Dakar finished 5th in the general standings, one place behind the winner of the 450 category, Spaniard Jose Manuel Pellicer (Yamaha). In the car category, the fantastic duel for victory between Carlos Sainz (VW) and Stephane Peterhansel (Mitsubishi), only 18 seconds apart at the beginning of this last special, came to a quick conclusion in the first few kilometres after the Frenchman made a slight navigational mistake at the start of the special. Having lost between 40" and 1 minute as a result, the King of the Dakar decided to make sure he finished 2nd, finally finishing 2'01" behind the winner of the rally-raid World Cup.

In the other fight between Blues and Reds for the 3rd place on the podium, it was young German Dieter Depping (VW) who was victorious, 54" ahead of Luc Alphand (Mitsubishi), who came off the track in the final timed section. The next placed driver was Portugal's Carlos Sousa (VW) and then in 6th, Frenchman Bruno Saby, the first BWW driver. Philippe Gache, 8th in the general standings at 57'25" behind Sainz, won the two-wheel drive buggy category. 

For the first ever general standings for quads in the history of rally-raids, Frenchman Hubert Deltrieu (Polaris) grabbed glory, 28'52" ahead of his countryman and eternal rival Christophe Declerck (Yamaha), who nonetheless won the last special. Third place went to Slovak Martin Antal (Polaris). Finally, in the truck race, the major favourite, Dutchman Hans Stacey (MAN), did not disappoint. In addition to triumphing in the final stage, the winner of the 2007 Dakar claimed outright victory with a lead of 33'43" over his countryman Wulfert Van Ginkel (Ginaf) and 53'18" over Czech Alès Loprais (Tatra). 

1. David Casteu - FRA - KTM 12.21.14

2. Francisco Lopez - CHL - KTM 12.24.12

3. Alain Duclos- FRA - KTM 12.40.53

5. Jose Manuel Pellicer - ESP - YAMAHA 12.42.34

4. Cyril Despres - FRA - KTM 12.44.04

6. Jordi Viladoms - ESP - KTM 12.49.11

1. Carlos Sainz/Michel Périn (E/F), Volkswagen Race Touareg 2, 11h18m08s

2. Stéphane Peterhansel/Jean-Paul Cottret (F/F), Mitsubishi Pajero Evolution, + 2.01m

3. Dieter Depping/Timo Gottschalk (D/D), Volkswagen Race Touareg 2, + 6.34m

4. Luc Alphand/Gilles Picard (F/F), Mitsubishi Pajero Evolution, + 7.28m

5. Carlos Sousa/Andreas Schulz (P/D), Volkswagen Race Touareg 2, + 33.45m

6. Bruno Saby/Alain Guehennec (F/F), BMW X3 CC, + 46.30m

7. Robert Baldwin/Kevin Heath (USA/USA), Hummer, + 56.02m

8. Philippe Gache/François Flick (F/F), SMG, + 1h07m08s

9. Miroslav Zapletal/Valdimir Nemajer (CZ/CZ), Mitsubishi L200, + 1h12m19s

10. Robby Gordon/Andy Grider (USA/USA), Hummer, + 1h25m38s

The Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO) is part of the French media group, EPA (Éditions Philippe Amaury), and is well-known as the organiser of various major sporting events, including the Tour de France and Paris-Nice professional cycle road races, and the Dakar Rally. In 2008 it began the Central Europe Rally, a rally-raid endurance race held in Romania and Hungary.[1]The Tour de France was instituted by the newspaper L'Auto in 1903. The paper was closed after the war because of its links with the occupying Germans and a new paper, L'Équipe, took over after the war. L'Équipe (now part of the EPA group) organised the Tour until the race was taken over by its parent company, ASO. ASO also organises Paris-Roubaix, Liège-Bastogne-Liège, La Flèche Wallonne and Paris-Tours one-day races, and the L'Etape du Tour cyclosportive event. ASO also organises the Paris Marathon, cycling events in Africa (Tour du Faso) and the Middle East (Tour of Qatar), golf (the French Open) and equestrian events. The president of ASO is Patrice Clerc. 

Source: Wikipedia; The Central Europe Rally