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Issue #9:January 16, 2024
On January 14, the second half of the Dakar Rally 2024 started. The 483 km race was held between Riyadh and Al Duwadimi in Saudi Arabia. On this day, the route took teams around the hills south of Duwadimi. Approximately 60% of the route consisted of gravel, but competitors also found themselves passing through soft sand dunes that are easy to get stuck in. It was a long and tough stage, and several places were difficult to navigate.
TLC is competing in the Stock (Production Vehicle) category of the rally with their Land Cruiser 300 cars. Ronald Basso and Jean-Michel Polato in Car #501 are in 109th position overall in the Car category and 1st in the Stock (Production Car) category despite getting stuck and suffering a puncture. Akira Miura and Mayeul Barbet in Car #500 went off course but recovered and reached the finish in 122nd place overall and 2nd in the same category. This brings the overall cumulative rankings to 78th overall and 1st in the Stock (Production Car) category for Car #500, and 117th overall and 2nd in the same category for Car #501. TLC continues to firmly hold their one-two formation.
On this stage, crews departed from Riyadh, where maintenance was carried out on Rest Day, and headed west-southwest on a 255 km liaison (transfer section), and the SS (competition section) started in the hills. At the start of the stage, the off-road terrain was surrounded by rugged mountains, with the surface varying between fesh-fesh, gravel and sand. In addition, there were wadis (dried-up rivers), rocky areas and sand dunes in the second half; it was a stage full of variations.
Car #500 found themselves stuck in fesh-fesh shortly after the start. Later, Car #501 caught up from behind and they both kept driving while keeping each other in sight. Unfortunately, Car #501 was delayed after two punctures and getting stuck when it plunged headfirst into a dune pit. Car #500 also lost about an hour and a half after going off course. It was a turbulent unfolding of events for both cars.
After finishing the SS, crews took a 136 km liaison to Al Duwadimi, where Car #501 arrived safely at the bivouac at around 10:40 pm and Car #500 at around 11:30 pm. After covering a total of 874 km, the long day finally came to an end.
Miura (driver): After sunset, we lost track of where we were in the dark and it took us a while to recover. A lot of time was wasted, but every day can’t be perfect. We will move on and keep doing our best again tomorrow.
Basso (driver): It took us a while to get out of the sand dune pit that we plunged into. We also suffered two punctures. It was long and tiring, but I'm glad we were able to make it to the finish.