HOME > Latest News > 2023 > Issue #11
Issue #11:January 11, 2023
For the 2023 Dakar Rally, January 10 marks the beginning of the second half of the rally. A 359km competition stage was held between Riyadh and Haradh, where the TLC Land Cruiser 300 cars made it to the finish with the following results: Akira Miura and Laurent Lichtleuchter in car #246 came in 107th place overall in the car category and 1st place in the production car category, while Ronald Basso and Jean-Michel Polato in car #250 came in 121st place overall and 2nd in their category. With these results, the cumulative rankings for the cars are as follows: Car #250 is in 93rd place overall and 1st in the production car category, while car #246 is in 124th place overall and 2nd in their category.
Today’s SS (competition stage) started in the hills after a 106km liaison east-northeast from Riyadh. It was a high-speed course overall that started on dunes and changed to sandy tracks and gravel plateaus. In the second half of the stage, they entered rough terrain in the mountains where rainfall from the other day had modified the surface. Wadis (dried-up riverbeds) had water in them, and some other sections had turned into mud. Towards the end, the cars arrived at the finish after getting through a sandy plateau with forked tracks, which complicated navigation.
For the first day of the second half of the rally, both TLC cars continued to run at a calm pace, but soon after the start, car #250 had to stop due to some trouble with their cooling system. In about an hour, they made repairs and were back in the competition. Then, towards the end, they got stuck in mud and faced some delays, but they safely made it to the finish.
Meanwhile, car #246 suffered a puncture and a de-bead (when a tire comes off the rim because tire pressure has been lowered to improve driving performance on dunes), but they successfully managed to complete the SS trouble-free without getting stuck.
The climax of the rally will be on January 11 when participants reach the Empty Quarter in the desert region of southeastern Saudi Arabia. A 114km competition stage will be held all the way to Shaybah.
Miura (Driver): It was a high-speed course today. Because of the rain, some of the places with moistened ground had turned to mud, making it difficult to drive. We had a puncture and a de-bead but managed to make it through the stage without getting stuck in the dunes - we had a good day.
Basso (Driver): Early in the course, problems with our cooling system led to delays. We were passed by many trucks that turned the ground ahead of us into mud, where we later got stuck. It wasn’t our best day.