The constantly shifting sands of the Sahara Desert can be an unforgiving place, veteran Canadian race driver John Graham said Tuesday.
That's why he wasn't surprised to learn that a second racer in as many days had died while competing in the gruelling Dakar Rally across the West African sands.
Italian motorcyclist Fabrizio Meoni was killed Tuesday in a crash during the 11th stage of the Dakar Rally in Mauritania, a day after another motorcyclist, Spain's Jose Manuel Perez, died in hospital from injuries suffered last Thursday on the seventh stage.
''The Sahara Desert is a nasty place,'' said Graham, a native of Aurora, Ont., who raced a Land Rover in what was then called the Paris-Dakar Rally in 1986, when there were a record 11 deaths.
''I can remember being at a press conference with (late organizer) Thierry Sabine and they asked who was going to win. Sabine said `the desert.' It's one of those events that doesn't just wear on your machine, but also on your psychology.''
More than 30 people have died in conjunction with the rally since it was first held in 1979.
Meoni, who was competing in the rally for the 13th time, had said this would be his last Dakar race, the Italian news agency ANSA reported.
This year's Dakar Rally covers 8,956 kilometres from Barcelona, Spain, to Dakar, Senegal, including 5,431 kilometres of competitive special stages. The race, which includes competitions in cars, trucks and motorcycles, ends Jan. 16.
Graham's one and only attempt began on New Year's Day in 1986 before a huge crowd at the Versailles palace near Paris before jumping the Mediterranean for the mad dash through Algeria, Niger, Mali, Mauritania and Senegal.
That year, Sabine was among three people killed while following the race when their helicopter went down in a sandstorm.
Graham, an experienced sports car racer, found that blasting through sand was no picnic.
''There's no roads, just desert,'' he said. ''The biggest problem is that the sandstorms change the lie of the desert and a lot of times, the sand can't support the weight of the vehicle.
''Sometimes the sand feels tight and solid and then there's a sandstorm and you sink. For the guys on motorcycles, balance is even more important, so if the sand softens or thickens, it's harder.''
Meoni crashed 184 kilometres into Tuesday's 695-kilometre stage between Atar and Kiffa in Mauritania, according to The Associated Press. French rider David Fretigne alerted authorities immediately after the accident and a medical team arrived by helicopter 15 minutes later. Meoni died less than hour after the crash, organizers said.
Support systems are better today than they were in the 1980s, when it could take hours for relief trucks to reach crashed or broken down vehicles.
''When we did it, your communications and direction aids were a compass and a mirror,'' Graham recalled. ''Now I see guys have cellphones and GPS systems.''
But it remains a dangerous race.
''It's not like the four-hour race at Mosport (Ont.) or the Le Mans 24 Hours, where everybody makes sure you're OK and you get out of the car and have a coffee,'' he said. ''You sleep underneath your vehicle and if you're late for bivouac, you miss it.
''It's probably a little more luxurious now.''
The Land Rover, in which Graham shared driving with a Belgian teammate he says he detested, lasted only 14 days before breaking down.
''The terrain was so bad that the frame actually broke,'' he said.
He sticks to solid ground now. The 48-year-old drove stock cars on the Busch series last year. He is in negotiations to ride in either the Busch or the NASCAR truck series in 2005.
Meoni, 47, who won the Dakar motorcycle title in 2001 and 2002, had been in second place overall in this year's race behind France's Cyril Despres.
Meoni was born in the Tuscan town of Castiglion Fiorentino, about 75 kilometres south of Florence. He is survived by his wife Elena and his son Gioele, according to Italian reports.
German Jutta Kleinschmidt won the 11th stage of the rally, finishing 1:40 ahead of French driver and former world cup ski racer Luc Alphand.
Stephane Peterhansel of France was third in the stage but maintained his 20 minute overall lead over teammate Alphand.
Kleinschmidt's victory ensured she woudl hold on to third place overall, more than an hour behind Peterhansel.