ABOUT DAKAR RALLY
Dakar Rally
The doorway to adventure was opened when young French motorcycle racer Thierry Sabine came up with the idea for the rally in December 1978. The rally started in Paris and crossed over the Sahara Desert towards the goal in Dakar, the capital of Senegal in the African continent. Because of the route, the rally was named the Paris-Dakar Rally and became widely popular. Then, the rally was moved to South America from 2009-2019 due to political unrest. In 2020, the adventure moved once again to a new location, this time to Saudi Arabia in the Middle East. While the location has departed the original Paris and Dakar cities, the name Dakar continues to be used to this day.
The Dakar Rally sees participants competing in deserts, muddy and mountainous terrain – a diverse range of road surfaces. Even among other cross-country rallies and rally raids, it is well-known as being the world’s toughest and harshest event. On some stages, participants and their cars must travel over 800km in a day in the hottest and most unforgiving conditions. During the rally, which spans a period of about two weeks, not only must the drivers possess the right driving technique, but they also need to have the mental and physical tenacity, as well as the knowledge required to deal with mechanical issues during the competition, and their navigation skills and experience are tested to the limits.
The Dakar Rally is so tough, that people are said to be winners even if they are just able to reach the finish line, since only about 50% of participants can reach the goal. And together with the name of the rally comes the pride of “The toughest rally in the world” and “The spirit of never-ending adventure” – the rally continues to captivate a large audience.
FiA (Federation Internationale de l'Automobile) and FIM（Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme）have integrated their respective formats for holding world championships. Starting from 2022, five annual events will be held using new formats.
The Dakar Rally is the opening race of the World Rally Championship and with the distances traveled and severity of the environment, it exceeds other races in many standpoints. Continuing with the subsequent Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge (ARE); the third race – the newly added South African Safari Rally (ZAF); the fourth is the BP Ultimate Rally-Raid Portugal (PRT); and the final of the five events is the Rallye du Maroc (MAR).
TOYOTA RALLY RAID HISTORY
Toyota vehicles have been chosen since the inaugural Dakar Rally in 1979 by many participants, and in that year 13 of the 74 vehicles that completed the rally were Toyota vehicles. Since then, while continuing to compete in and be a valuable part of the Dakar Rally, Toyota has always proven its high quality, durability and reliability. Especially in the T2 category (production car category) where the permitted modifications are strictly limited in order to maintain the vehicles’ specifications as closely as possible to the production model, cars must still meet the demands of entrants. For this reason, Toyota vehicles have always been highly sought-after by private teams participating in the Dakar Rally.
As a local team, TOYOTA GAZOO Racing South Africa (TGRSA) began taking part in the South African Rally-Raid Championship (SACCS/SARRC) with TOYOTA Hilux the 2012 T1 (Super Production) class and since a TGRSA Hilux has posted top ten finishes each year, winning the Grand Prize in 2019. Further, since 2020 the TOYOTA GAZOO Racing Works Team has operated under a new system, achieving two victories in 2022 and 2023 for the third overall championship.
As the manufacturer of the Land Cruiser, TOYOTA Motor Corporation has participated in events as Team Land Cruiser (TLC) for over 25 years since 1995 in the T2 (production vehicles) category. The T2 class is based on vehicles that, other than certain safety equipment, are nearly identical to commercially sold vehicles. TLC’s aim is that the Land Cruiser overcome the most extreme environments, making it an even “tougher vehicle”. That determination became a reality and in 2023 the Land Cruiser 300 GR SPORT made its first challenge. In 2024, 11 years of consecutive wins were achieved in the production vehicle class.
