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Issue #22:October 5, 2023
At the Sanage Adventure Field in Toyota City, Aichi Prefecture, on Thursday, October 5, 2023, TLC announced its entry in the 2024 Dakar Rally.
The upcoming Dakar Rally 2024 will be TLC's 30th entry since its first as Toyota Team Araco, as it was previously known. Continuing from the previous rally, a 2-car formation consisting of rally cars based on the Land Cruiser 300 GR SPORT will be competing in the production car category, aiming for an 11th consecutive category win.
Car #1 will be driven by Akira Miura (Public Relations Office, General Affairs Department), a Toyota Auto Body staff member, and navigated by Mayeul Barbet who has newly joined the team. Car #2 will be driven and navigated by the same members who won the rally last year, Ronald Basso and Jean-Michel Polato, respectively. In addition, two Japanese mechanics will be joining the team. Isamu Ito, who will be sent over for the second year from Fukuoka Toyota Corporation, and Fumihiko Tanigami, whose participation in the 2024 rally will be his first.
The 2024 Dakar Rally is scheduled to be held in one country, the same as last year’s, Saudi Arabia. Although a detailed route has not yet been announced, we know that contestants will compete in a total of 13 stages, starting from AlUla in western Saudi Arabia on January 5, 2024, passing through the Rub' al Khali desert in the southeast, and finishing in Yanbu on January 19. The route will also include a new highlight stage, the 48-hour Chrono Stage, replacing the traditional marathon stages, which consisted of two stages that were to be completed without the support of mechanics. In the new stage, teams will need to tackle sand dune sections and cover a total of 600 km within 48 hours. The stage is expected to be both difficult and grueling.
At the announcement, Katsuhiro Matsuo, President and Member of the Board of Directors of Toyota Auto Body Corporation, said, "Through our participation in the Dakar Rally, we will continue to refine reliability, durability, and rough-road driving performance, which are at the core of the Land Cruiser’s DNA, and we will continue to challenge ourselves to make even better Land Cruisers to keep meeting the expectations of customers worldwide as a car that can go anywhere and come back alive.”
Afterwards, the team’s representative Atsushi Honda, General Manager of Toyota Auto Body's Corporate Division, introduced the initiatives aimed at achieving the team's goal, to win their 11th consecutive victory in the production car category. To achieve their goal, they will need to successfully clear all stages in the 2024 rally. He encouraged the team members and their cars, which have come far since the last competition.
Next in their activities, TLC will be competing in the Rally of Morocco 2023 starting on October 12, and will make final real-world evaluations for the 2024 Dakar Rally. We welcome and appreciate your warm and ongoing support for the team as we prepare for January 2024.
Click here for team information:
https://www.toyota-body.co.jp/dakar/en/season2024/team/
Click here for vehicle information:
https://www.toyota-body.co.jp/dakar/en/season2024/team/machine.html