This is the Statt Mann Baby!! Time to Scatt a little bit.

This Dakar Rally Raid thing has me troubled. On the surface, 49 deaths in 29 years is a headline for a serial murder. Twenty-four of those 49 deaths were competitors.

Think of that for a moment. On average, nearly every year of the rally, someone involved in the competition and someone watching, came away dead.

Certainly that’s a flaw in the model.

And don’t tell me that the people competing died doing something they loved. They died terrified and in severe pain. They didn’t enter the event planning to sacrifice themselves for the benefit of spectators and sponsors.

Much was made this week about a Vatican editorial sharply critical of the event and its raid aspects in Northern Africa.

I don’t know that I disagree with a lot of that and I’m a HUGE rally fan.

There is nothing better than the esoteric competition of man, machine and their elements; except when the rules of engagement include death.

That’s hyperbole to be sure. I know that. But, in short, the Dakar Rally Raid needs to be fixed before all of rallying suffers.

Peace.