The preparations have begun for the race formerly known as the Paris-Dakar. The entrants have begun to gather in Le Havre, France, for scrutineering before shipping out to South America for the Dakar's run across Argentina and Chile. Mike Werner was in Normandy and captured in photographs what was going on. If you ever wondered wanted to see what it takes to get ready for a big-deal international race, the words to describe the images are "intense preparation" -- right down to making sure the vehicle sound level doesn't breach 95 decibels. Follow the link to check out all the photos. And get ready to rumble.

The points system used by Formula 1 has been the subject of debate for years. When the system was expanded after 2002 and began offering points up to eighth position, people thought that would create more suspense since Michael Schumacher was running off with the trophies every year. It didn't work, and now with Schumacher gone, all the points system tends to reward is consistency over winning. Lewis Hamilton won five races this year and Felipe Massa won six, but Lewis Hamilton is the world champion because he scored more points.

This is Volkswagens entrant in this weekend's Baja 1000: a spaceframe-chassis Touareg TDI with 75 cm of suspension travel competing in the top-dog Trophy Truck class and utilizing an oil-burning V12 with nearly 550 hp. That's a long way from the first VW win in 1967 that came courtesy of a VW Beetle converted into one of the soon-to-be-ubiquitous dune monsters. Driver Mark Miller won the Baja 500 last year in the first Race Touareg. Aided by helicopters and eight support vehicles, we'll find out on Sunday if he and navigator Ryan Arciero can take The Big One this year.