The TOYOTA GAZOO Racing (TGR) Dakar Team has erected its three GR DKR Hilux T1+ race vehicles at the Sea Camp, north of the Saudi Arabian city of Yanbu, five days prior to the prologue of the world’s most difficult rally-raid race. Prior to conducting the final inspections and administration for Dakar 2023, it is necessary to conduct a comprehensive shakedown to ensure that everything functions as intended.
The 11km-long prologue for the event, which is used to set the starting order for the first stage, will kick off the action on the afternoon of December 31, 2022, before the actual race begins on January 1, 2023. The next fourteen stages will be contested, with a Rest Day following Stage 8.
IS TOYOTA GAZOO RACING CAPABLE OF DEFENDING THEIR TITLE?
The 2023 Dakar Rally will provide TGR with a chance to defend the title it earned in 2022 when Qatar’s Nasser Al-Attiyah and France’s Mathieu Baumel brought the monster GR DKR Hilux T1+ home first. This was Nasser and Mathieu’s second triumph for the squad, and they’ll be looking for a repeat performance in the first few months of the new year.
Toyota GAZOO Dakar at sunset
South African teammate Giniel de Villiers has one of the most impressive Dakar records in history, having competed in twenty Dakars to date. In 2009, he won the race and has since finished on the podium seven times. Only once in twenty races has he finished outside the top ten, and he will be aiming for another excellent result alongside South African co-driver Dennis Murphy.
The first two Dakar Rallies that Henk Lategan and co-driver Brett Cummings competed in together were instructive for the South African duo. In their first rally together, in 2021, they crashed badly during Stage 5 and Lategan suffered a broken collarbone. In 2022, they rebounded, driving at a more controllable pace that resulted in two stage victories, despite their 31st-place finish belying their speed.
Team TGR Dakar on the dunes
The first two Dakar Rallies that Henk Lategan and co-driver Brett Cummings competed in together were instructive for the South African duo. Image by TGR Dakar Dakar 2023 promises to be one of the most difficult to date, with 14 stages as opposed to the 12 that have become standard in recent years. In addition, the route travels farther than ever before into the so-called Empty Quarter of Saudi Arabia. Considering that the Rest Day occurs long after the halfway point of the race and that mid-stage rest-and-refuel points have been eliminated, it is evident that the following rally will be challenging.
In spite of this, the GR DKR Hilux T1+ has continually improved since the last Dakar, winning the first W2RC in the hands of Nasser and Mathieu and carrying Giniel to another victory in the South African Rally-Raid Championship, one of the team’s test series. With improvements to the vehicle’s quality, dependability, and durability, the team believes it has created a vehicle that is superior to the one that won the race in 2022.
The 2017 Dakar Rally will begin at the so-called Sea Camp on the northwestern coast of Saudi Arabia. Here, the Prologue and Stage 1 will take place, before Stage 2 takes the rally to the breathtaking cliffs and valleys surrounding Alula. Next is Stage 3 toward Ha’il, where the bivouac will remain for three days before being relocated to Al Duwadimi for two. The rally will reach the Saudi capital of Riyadh on Stage 8 for a much-needed Rest Day.
Dakar assemblage
The 2017 Dakar Rally will begin at the so-called Sea Camp on the northwestern coast of Saudi Arabia. Photo courtesy TGR Dakar
From here, the path continues east toward Haradh before entering the Empty Quarter for the event’s final few days. This year’s Marathon Stage – in which crews race from the bivouac to an unsupported camp in the desert, before racing back the next day – will take place near the conclusion of the race, and is likely to affect the outcome.
The last phases of the race will take the crews from Shaybah through Al-Hofuf and then to the Arabian Gulf city of Dammam. Despite the fact that the final three stages of the rally are all under 200 kilometers in length, the organizers have advised that these stages may prove to be the most difficult of the race, and competitors should not take them lightly due to their comparatively modest distances.
Car numbers: 200 – Nasser Al-Attiyah / Mathieu Baumel, 205 – Giniel de Villiers / Dennis Murphy, 217 – Henk Lategan / Brett Cummings. Image by TGR Daker Dakar 2023 is set to conclude in Dammam on January 15, 2023. This will be the first time that the Dakar visits the city, and it will also be the first time that the race traverses the entirety of Saudi Arabia from coast to coast.
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