The new race will take place in Argentina and Chile, running a 9,000km route starting and arriving in Buenos Aires in January next year. This year, however, the Dakar Series will be heading to Central Europe and will run between Budapest and Lake Balaton in Hungary, crossing Romania and running several special stages over the 3,000km length of the event.
ASO officials claim they had been preparing to introduce a new "Dakar Series" anyway and is only moving the plan forward a year. The Central Europe Rally, the group says, will be the first in "a series of new events" that will join the Dakar Rally in the racing calendar starting in 2009.