article: Around 30 Peruvian and Brazilian rally car drivers did exactly that to mark a new stretch of a road that connects their nations. The two countries have historically had their figurative backs to one another with their shared border running through the Amazon rainforest, but are now trying to forge stronger links. Setting off from Nazca, in Peru's coastal desert on 19 January, the drivers traversed the Andes cordillera to Cusco, rising to 4,725m (15,500ft) above sea level. They then descended into the Amazon rainforest of Madre de Dios, the frontier region that borders Brazil and Bolivia. The race over some 2,200km (1,367 miles) involved a brief break to cross a river by ferry as a key bridge is still not finished. Competitors then continued on to Inapari on the border, reached first by Peruvian professional rally car driver Nicolas Fuchs. Vehicle registration problems meant most of the drivers could not cross into Brazil to complete the last 200km or so to Rio Branco, capital of Acre state. Bureaucratic problems aside, the dramatic route was the main challenge. "The road doesn't just have curves, it has big drops, places where if you make a mistake, you die," said Luiz Facco, a Brazilian driver who raced alongside wife and co-driver Cristina, told the BBC in Cusco's main square. Apart from being a symbol of South American integration, the road links will also boost - potentially hugely - trade with Asia. China has already replaced the US as Brazil's number one trading partner. With this road, Brazil will eventually have paved access to five Pacific-facing Peruvian ports. For its part, Peru is strategically sandwiched between two of the world's largest emerging economies - China to the west and Brazil, to the east. "This road is a dream," says Miguel Vega, president of the Peru-Brazil Chamber of Commerce. "As we say in football, the midfield dominates the game. This road will put Peru in the midfield between Asia and South America." But the road is also proving to be an environmentalists' nightmare. "Asphalting the road itself doesn't do any real harm," says Rob Williams, Peru research co-ordinator for the Frankfurt Zoological Society. "It's the secondary roads which come off the main road in a fishbone pattern which do the damage. These continue to fragment the Amazon until the whole strip along the Interoceanic highway is deforested." Widely viewed by scientists as the most bio-diverse corner of the Amazon rainforest, Madre de Dios is bisected by the road. Where the Andes meet the Amazon, the Interoceanic highway passes directly through the town of Quince Mil. In its main square is a statue of an old man panning for gold. "Everyone knows how to pan for gold here but nowadays miners are coming with heavy machinery and mercury," says Quince Mil resident Ozwaldo Escobar. "They are polluting our water supply, killing the fish and destroying the forest. "There's little we can do because they bribe the police and the local authorities," he alleges. A young man, known just as Renzo, told the BBC he gets weekly visits
summary: What better way to celebrate the opening of a road than by racing cars on it?