2023 Rallye du Maroc: Ronald Basso survives for T2 triumph

The production-based T2 is a bit of an oddity in the World Rally-Raid Championship. It only appeared at two races in 2023, is the only category without a championship at all, and has been virtually monopolised by Team Land Cruiser Toyota Auto Body on the grounds of being the only outfit to consistently show up. Still, that does not mean the class is devoid of action; after all, a rally raid is difficult for any vehicle and perhaps doubly so for stock machinery.

For the second and final race at the Rallye du Maroc, Toyota Auto Body retained their Dakar Rally duo of Akira Miura and Ronald Basso. The former entered Morocco as the defending winner, while Basso hoped to build upon his maiden Dakar victory. Like at Dakar, both were the only entrants in T2, making the class yet another “mano a mano”.

Miura had the early advantage by winning the Prologue and first two stages, including beating Basso by over thirty-six minutes in Stage #2, though his Toyota Land Cruiser 300 GR was taking a beating of its own and lost power steering during the first leg. He suffered a tyre puncture just two kilometres from the finish in Stage #3, which Basso claimed. Stage #4 saw the closest battle as Miura held off Basso by just 3:22.

Despite his stage wins, Miura ultimately did not reach the finish after a mechanical issue in the drive system struck just seventy-five kilometres from the start.

“How we address this problem will depend on our work over the next two months, so we would like to thoroughly investigate the cause of the problem to prevent it from happening soon,” Miura said shortly after bowing out. “My team-mates are still competing so I hope they can finish without having the same problems.”

Fortunately for the team, Basso indeed finished without trouble to complete the season sweep. Even with Miura forced to retire, the effort was still a step up from Dakar where he rolled in Stage #1 while Basso suffered a string of mechanical failures in the second half.

Like most of the field, Toyota Auto Body mainly used the Rallye du Maroc as a dress rehearsal before the Dakar Rally in January.

Mayeul Barbet served as Miura’s co-driver for the race, having joined the team following the death of his usual navigator Laurent Lichtleuchter at the unrelated Morocco Desert Challenge in April. At the 2023 Dakar Rally, Barbet was the co-driver on the T3 of Michael Pisano but they retired after one leg.

T2 overall results

Finish	Number	Driver	Co-Driver	Team	Time	Margin
1	251	Ronald Basso*	Jean-Michel Polato	Team Land Cruiser Toyota Auto Body	22:14:17	Leader
DNF	250	Akira Miura*	Mayeul Barbet	Team Land Cruiser Toyota Auto Body	DNF	N/A

* – Not competing in World Rally-Raid Championship

T2 stage winners

Stage	Driver	Time
Prologue	Akira Miura*	14:10
Stage #1	Akira Miura*	4:55:39
Stage #2	Akira Miura*	4:12:42
Stage #3	Ronald Basso*	4:17:34
Stage #4	Akira Miura*	4:50:41
Stage #5	Ronald Basso*	3:05:57

Overall winners

Class	Number	Competitor	Team	Time
T1	201	Yazeed Al-Rajhi	Toyota Gazoo Racing	14:49:09
T2	251	Ronald Basso*	Team Land Cruiser Toyota Auto Body	22:14:17
T3	315	Marek Goczał	EnergyLandia Rally Team	16:22:12
T4	403	João Ferreira	South Racing Can-Am	18:26:24
T5	506	Michiel Becx*	Team de Rooy	21:32:34
RallyGP	8	Toby Price	Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	15:56:43
Rally2	32	Bradley Cox	BAS World KTM Racing Team	17:06:37
Rally3	164	Cheikh Yves Jacquemain	Africa Rallye Team	23:42:39
Quad	186	Alexandre Giroud*	Drag’on Rally Team	21:07:24
Open Auto	601	Jérôme Cambier*	MD Rallye Sport	21:21:46
Open SSV	653	Tomas Mickus*	BRO Racing	21:42:23
Road to Dakar Bike	71	Toby Hederics*	BAS World KTM Racing Team	19:11:16
Road to Dakar SSV	420	William Grarre*	Team Horizon Off-Road	21:50:39