The Dakar Rally (or simply "The Dakar"; formerly known as "The Paris–Dakar" or "Paris to Dakar Rally") is an annual rally raid type of off-road race, organised by the Amaury Sport Organisation. Most events since the inception in 1978 were from Paris, France, to Dakar, Senegal, but due to security threats in Mauritania, which led to the cancellation of the 2008 rally, the 2009 Dakar Rally was run in South America (Argentina, Chile and Peru). It was the first time the race took place outside of Europe and Africa. It has stayed in South America from 2009 to the present (2012). The race is open to amateur and professional entries. Amateurs typically make up about eighty percent of the participants.

Despite its name it is an off-road endurance race, called a rally-raid rather than a conventional rally – the terrain the competitors traverse is much tougher and the vehicles used are true off-road vehicles rather than the modified on-road vehicles used in rallies. Most of the competitive special sections are off-road, crossing dunes, mud, camel grass, rocks and erg among others. The distances of each stage covered vary from short distances up to 800–900 kilometres (500–560 mi) per day.

Dakar is the capital city and largest city of Senegal. It is located on the Cap-Vert Peninsula on the Atlantic coast and is the westernmost city on the African mainland. Its position, on the western edge of Africa, is an advantageous departure point for trans-Atlantic and European trade; this fact aided its growth into a major regional port.

According to December 31, 2005 official estimates, the city of Dakar proper has a population of 1,030,594, whereas the population of the Dakar metropolitan area is estimated at 2.45 million people.

Dakar is a major administrative centre, home to the National Assembly of Senegal and Senegal's President's Palace.

The Cape Verde Peninsula was settled, no later than the 15th century, by the Lebou, an ethnic group related to the neighboring Wolof and Sereer. The original villages: Ouakam, Ngor, Yoff and Hann, still constitute distinctively Lebou neighborhoods of the city today. Meanwhile, in 1444, the Portuguese arrived on the island of Gorée and founded a settlement there. By 1536, they had begun using it as a base for the export of slaves. The mainland of Cap-Vert, however, was under control of the Jolof Empire, as part of the western province of Cayor which seceded from Jolof in its own right in 1549. A new Lebou village, called Ndakaaru, was established directly across from Gorée in the 17th century to service the European trading factory with food and drinking water. Gorée was captured by the United Netherlands in 1588, which gave it its present name (spelled Goeree, after Goeree-Overflakkee in Holland). The island was to switch hands between the Portuguese and Dutch several more times before falling to the English under Admiral Robert Holmes on January 23, 1664, and finally to the French in 1677. Though under continuous French administration since, Métis families, descendant from Dutch and French traders and African wives, dominated the slave trade. The infamous "House of Slaves" was built here in 1776.

Nani Roma, full name Joan Roma Cararach, (b 17 February 1972) is a rally racing driver from Folgueroles, a small village in Barcelona, Spain. He won the Dakar Rally riding a motorcycle in 2004. Since then he has entered driving a car.

James Douglas Muir "Jay" Leno /ˈlɛnoʊ/ (born April 28, 1950) is an American stand-up comedian and television host.

From 1992 to 2009, Leno was the host of NBC's The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. Beginning in September 2009, Leno started a primetime talk show, titled The Jay Leno Show, which aired weeknights at 10:00 p.m. (Eastern Time, UTC-5), also on NBC. After The Jay Leno Show was canceled in January 2010 amid a host controversy, Leno returned to host The Tonight Show with Jay Leno on March 1, 2010.

James "Jay" Leno was born in New Rochelle, New York, in 1950. His mother, Catherine (née Muir; 1911–1993), a homemaker, was born in Greenock, Scotland, and came to the United States at age 11. Leno's father, Angelo (1910–1994), who worked as an insurance salesman, was born in New York to immigrants from Flumeri, Italy. Leno grew up in Andover, Massachusetts, and although his high school guidance counselor recommended that he drop out of school, he later obtained a Bachelor's degree in speech therapy from Emerson College, where he started a comedy club in 1973. Leno's siblings include his late older brother, Patrick, who was a Vietnam veteran and a lawyer.

Carlos Sainz Cenamor (born April 12, 1962 in Madrid, Spain) is a Spanish rally driver. He won the World Rally Championship drivers' title with Toyota in 1990 and 1992, and finished runner-up four times. Constructors' world champions to have benefited from Sainz are Subaru (1995), Toyota (1999) and Citroën (2003, 2004 and 2005).

Nicknamed El Matador, Sainz holds the WRC record for most career starts. He was also the first driver not from Scandinavia or Finland to win the 1000 Lakes Rally in Finland, and finished the Swedish Rally second four times and third twice, in this case without ever breaking the trend. Besides WRC successes, he has won the Dakar Rally (2010), the Race of Champions (1997) and the Asia-Pacific Rally Championship (1990). His co-drivers were Antonio Boto, Luís Moya and Marc Martí.

His son, Carlos Sainz, Jr., born in September 1994, won the 2009 Junior Monaco Kart Cup and began a professional formula racing career.

Sainz began rallying in 1980, and won the Spanish Rally Championship with a Ford Sierra RS Cosworth in 1987 and 1988. He first appeared in the World Rally Championship with Ford during the 1987 season, finishing seventh at the Tour de Corse and eighth at the RAC Rally. The following season, he finished fifth twice; at the Tour de Corse and at the Rallye Sanremo. Sainz then left Ford to join the Toyota Team Europe, the Japanese marque's rallying arm operating in Cologne, Germany.