2023 Dakar Rally: Ronald Basso notches Toyota Auto Body’s 10th straight T2 win

The T2 category of the Dakar Rally is for production vehicles with certain modifications to make them suitable for racing. Since 2014, the class has been a playground for the Toyota Land Cruisers of Team Land Cruiser Toyota Auto Body, and Ronald Basso and twice-defending champion Akira Miura were eager to be the one to get them to ten straight wins.

After fourteen gruelling stages, Basso got the honour as he and co-driver Jean-Michel Polato set a total time of 107:39;42, over seven hours better than Miura and Laurent Lichleuchter‘s 114:49:08. It is Basso’s first Dakar win after finishing second to Miura in 2022.

“Fifteen days were not easy at all with a few scares,” wrote Basso. “Thank you to everyone following me on this journey! A very nice gift for my tenth Dakar! See you very soon!”

The Land Cruiser is known for its reliability and durability, so much so that militant groups frequently convert the vehicle into “technicals” for use in warfare; this usage also looms over the Toyota Hilux, the rally raid model of which won the T1 category with Nasser Al-Attiyah. The aforementioned strengths were tested by Toyota Auto Body’s two Land Cruisers—a new 300 GR Sport model—in the rigors of the Saudi desert almost immediately from the start when Miura rolled in the opening stage and could not be righted despite Basso’s help.

Upon getting back on his wheels, Miura rejoined the race for the second stage after repairs but steering issues nailed Basso, prompting team director Yuji Kadoya to comment the Rally had already “taken a toll on our team’s stamina.” The crews got a brief reprieve as problems were mostly limited to punctures over until Stage #5, when Miura’s three-stage win streak ended on a drivetrain failure 135 kilometres in. The issue effectively knocked him out of overall contention due to a penalty for leaving the Special Stage mid-race.

Save for cut tyres in Stage #8, the duo enjoyed clean legs leading into the rest day. Despite fears of the team running out of parts, they restored components like shock absorbers to continue usage ahead of the second half.

Unfortunately for Basso, mechanical gremlins struck his #250 in every stage for the rest of the second half. The trobules began in Stage #9 when his cooling system failed moments after starting the stage, though he managed to reach the finish after spending an hour making repairs. Basso then lost a front tyre while dodging a stopped competitor in the dunes in the tenth leg, followed by a broken engine belt a day later and losing power steering in Stage #12. His engine’s turbo expired prior to Stage #13, forcing him to be taken back to the bivouac. Basso was penalised fifteen hours for leaving the Special, though he still had over seven hours on Miura.

The fourteenth and final stage was clean and the two crossed the finish under the Dakar Experience banner, which is given to entries who retired from a stage but were able to continue the Rally, albeit now ineligible for the overall win.

“This year was a milestone year for us with the début of the Land Cruiser 300,” said Toyota Motor Corporation executive and Toyota Auto Body President Keiji Masui. “The tournament turned out to be so tough that I thought it would be no good for a while, but I’m glad that we were able to manage to score a 1–2 finish with the combined strength of the team.”

Although Miura had eleven T2 stage wins to Basso’s three, Basso had the edge overall.

“It was a game and we lost but I’m glad we scored a goal! But I’m not thinking like that. It’s really frustrating,” commented Miura. “I feel the loneliness and difficulty of sports, where the time spent can’t be recovered due to mistakes made.

“However, the members of Ric-Rallye never gave up and helped me after the first stage—I think they were the driving force to continue the Rally without giving up. Not only the car but also myself as a racer was helped by the team, and Laurent Lichtleuchter who did the best navigation as usual. Jose Pedro Oliveira Ambrosio prepared for the start the next morning as usual even when the stage was in tatters, starting with the mechanics and schedule. These are why the scenes during the two days of the Marathon, where I was able to maximise the potential of the Rankle 300 [a contraction of ‘Land Cruiser’ in Japanese—’Rando-Kurūzā’], were the best! The challenge to Dakar 2024 has already started.”

The team was supported by Sylvain Besnard, who drove a #525 Renault TGA11 in T5 and finished thirty-first overall.

Entries in T2 are typically scarce compared to the Cars in T1, to the point where the two tend to be lumped together in formal classificiations and entry lists. Ibrahim Almuhna was the only other T2 to race as he piloted the #259 Nissan Patrol alongside Saud Nasser Altamimi, though they retired after six stages. Hydyrberdi and Gurbanberdi Abdurahmanov were entered in Nissan Patrols by the Federation of Automobile Sport of Turkmenistan but did not start. Feryn Dakar Sport had a pair of Land Cruisers for Koen Wauters and Tom de Leeuw that were withdrawn after being rejected by the FIA for failing rollcage regulations.

T2 finishers

Finish	Number	Driver	Co-Driver	Team	Time	Margin
1	250	Ronald Basso*	Jean-Michel Polato	Team Land Cruiser Toyota Auto Body	107:39:42	Leader
2	246	Akira Miura*	Laurent Lichleuchter	Team Land Cruiser Toyota Auto Body	114:49:08	+ 7:09:26

* – Not competing in World Rally-Raid Championship

Overall winners

Class	Number	Competitor	Team	Time
T1	200	Nasser Al-Attiyah	Toyota Gazoo Racing	45:03:15
T2	250	Ronald Basso*	Team Land Cruiser Toyota Auto Body	107:39:42
T3	303	Austin Jones	Red Bull Off-Road Junior Team	51:55:53
T4	428	Eryk Goczał	EnergyLandia Rally Team	53:10:14
T5	502	Janus van Kasteren	Boss Machinery Team de Rooy IVECO	54:03:33
RallyGP	47	Kevin Benavides	Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	44:27:20
Rally2	17	Romain Dumontier	Team Dumontier Racing	47:03:58
Malle Moto	40	Charan Moore*	HT Rally Raid Husqvarna Racing	52:24:42
Quad	151	Alexandre Giroud*	Drag’on Rally Team	56:44:30
Classic	778	Juan Morera*	Toyota Classic	428 points