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Issue #1:January 1, 2023
On New Year’s Eve near Yanbu on the Red Sea coast in northwestern Saudi Arabia, the rally’s opening ceremony was held. Starting with a 13km prologue run on January 1 to decide starting positions, the 45th Dakar Rally commenced. For the start that day, a total of 355 vehicles showed up. 121 2-wheelers, 18 quads (4-wheel bikes), 69 4-wheelers, 47 small buggies, 45 heavily modified small buggies and 55 trucks.
TLC ran this short section at a calm pace with the Land Cruiser 300 cars, which are competing in the Dakar for the first time. Car #246 with Akira Miura (Toyota Auto Body staff) and Laurent Lichtleuchter came in at 128th place overall in the car category and 1st in the production car category. In car #250, Ronald Basso and Jean-Michel Polato came in at 128th place and 2nd in their category. The Land Cruiser 300 cars are off to a great start on their Dakar Rally debut.
Rally organizers set up a large-scale bivouac for the first time on the beach called “Sea Camp” on the outskirts of Yanbu City for vehicle inspections and paperwork. It is also the venue for the opening ceremony. TLC entered the location on the 28th, and together with other teams they spent time at the bivouac as though they were already in the rally. They were also able to use the bivouac to make final adjustments to their cars. On the 29th, there was an opportunity to test drive the cars on some hills near the Sea Camp to confirm their condition. The cars were inspected before being loaded onto the ferry in France, so they didn’t encounter any problems during the 30-day inspection paperwork phase, and everything was ready to go before the start of the rally.
On December 31, the opening ceremony was held in the Sea Camp a little after 7:30 in the morning, and the two TLC cars made their appearance on the podium just after 2:30 in the afternoon at the seaside location. On the podium, team Miura/Lichtleuchter and
team Basso/Polato firmly shook hands with General Manager Matsuo of Toyota Auto Body, who had come from Japan to support the team. They waved back at their cheering fans and made their way to the start for the prologue run.
Prepared on the southeast side of the Sea Camp, the 13km course traverses hills near the coast on hard gravel terrain. The many cars that run along the corner sections dig deep tracks, increasing the risk of rollovers. By maintaining a cautious pace throughout the course, both cars were able to make it to the finish without any trouble. After they made it back to the Sea Camp, the team of mechanics carefully inspected the cars and performed maintenance in preparation for the real competition starting on the next day. A 368km loop competition stage starting from the Sea Camp is planned for Stage 1 on January 1.
Miura (driver): When both cars took the stage on the podium, I was a little nervous because it was so narrow that I thought we may fall off! It was a very memorable occasion for the Land Cruiser 300 debut. There were some very deep tracks in the prologue stage, but we drove carefully to avoid any damage to the car.
Basso (driver): When both cars took the stage on the podium, I was a little nervous because it was so narrow that I thought we may fall off! It was a very memorable occasion for the Land Cruiser 300 debut. There were some very deep tracks in the prologue stage, but we drove carefully to avoid any damage to the car.