2024 Rallye du Maroc: Huzink, Miura, Oubassidi lead Open classes

Akira Miura is used to competing against fellow Toyota Land Cruiser driver Ronald Basso, so the Rallye du Maroc was a change of pace when his classmates instead included a Red-Lined REVO+ GT-R and even a Century CR7-T.

Miura’s Toyota Land Cruiser 300 GR Sport differed from the one used by Basso, featuring air intakes on the bonnet and an Emirati-designed engine. Since the car had not been homologated by the FIA, Miura was consigned to the Open class while Basso’s Land Cruiser was allowed to compete in the Stock category.

As such, his production-based Land Cruiser was grouped in with those that ordinarily race in the premier Ultimate class. Martin Koloc piloted a Red-Lined REVO GT-R while Sam Heyvaert was in a Nissan Red-Lined T1.1; the GT-R is the successor to the REVO T1+, using a detuned Nissan R35 GT-R engine and introduced in April.

Predictably, Koloc’s REVO was faster than the Land Cruiser as he set the quickest time among Open cars across the first two stages. While his Land Cruiser would usually be outclassed by an Ultimate machine, Miura kept pace with the second fastest times, roughly fifteen minutes behind, even if neither’s goal was to beat the other.

Koloc eventually withdrew from the classification after his daughter Aliyyah Koloc, who was racing a REVO T1+ in Ultimate, rolled into a ditch in Stage #3. Unofficially, he stayed with the race to continue developing the GT-R for the 2025 season.

“It was a positive rally for us despite Aliyyah’s accident. We had great pace, and I had a top navigator with Mirko (Brun) who stepped in at the last minute,” said the older Koloc, the head of Buggyra ZM Racing who made his cross-country rally début in August. “For the final day, we were able to improve the car set-up and judging from the split times, I think we did a good job. I am really happy with how we have been progressing.

“We have a fast car with great potential, but we need to improve its reliability. Once we have done so, we will be able to finish and get good results. We learned a lot and got a tremendous amount of data which will help us to improve the car for the Dakar. It’s been educational.”

Like Koloc, Miura focused on seeing if his Land Cruiser could sustain surviving in the desert for long periods. While things went rather smoothly at first, Stage #3 presented the first issue when the water temperature started to rise, forcing him to reduce the air pressure so the engine would not overload. Things then escalated on the fourth leg when the driveshaft broke while driving through gravel, forcing him and co-driver Jean-Michel Polato to stop for an hour to fix the issue.

The Land Cruiser finally reached its top permitted speed of 170 km/h during the final leg in a clean day. By the end, Miura’s time of 21:00:37 was half an hour faster than Basso’s, perhaps to be expected given he was in an upgraded Land Cruiser that underwent extensive testing in Morocco over the summer.

“Like the Dakar Rally, the Rallye du Maroc gets harder every year,” Miura stated. “This year’s race was on a variety of difficult terrain, so we were able to get some great experience to prepare for the Dakar Rally. We will work together as a team to achieve our twelfth consecutive victory at the 2025 Dakar Rally.”

Mathieu Serradori and his Century CR7-T were moved from Ultimate to Open for the second half of the rally after being disqualified for underweight wheels that used beadlocks. He set the fastest time of all Open vehicles in Stage #4.

Jongbloed Dakar Team, in partnership with MKR, fielded two Renault hybrid trucks as Open entries for Gert Huzink and his cousin Kay Huzink.

Gert’s truck, nicknamed “The Beast”, retired after the third stage because the nose came loose and would not stay on despite attempts to reattach it, while racing without it caused the engine to overheat. Kay, who was racing Gert’s previous Renault, had a slew of mechanical problems that included a track bar, shock absorber, and air line to rupture in the closing kilometres of Stage #3, followed by multiple flats in Stage #4.

Despite the struggles, Kay managed to reach the finish.

“We immediately had good speed, but we were already dealing with a lot of dust,” Kay recalled at the end of Stage #5. “Once we overtook a few vehicles, everything went smoothly, and we went full throttle to the finish.

“An incredibly educational week in which we experienced all sorts of things, making it a successful test for us in preparation for Dakar.”

Ali Oubassidi, who organises off-road tours in the Moroccan desert, dominated the Open SSV side. FIA World Baja Cup competitor Bartłomiej Kotwica notched a stage win as well, but was set back by mechanical problems that made him only fourth quickest among such vehicles.

“I worked hard and prepared well to win this great rally,” Outbassidi commented. “The race was not easy for me, especially since I was in a modest car whose mechanical and technical specs were below those of everyone else’s modern vehicles.

“But thank God, I was able to overcome these challenges and achieve this important victory thanks to determination, resolve, encouragement from friends, and the help of my navigator Hanane Amraoui, who played a major part in this achievement.”

Open overall results

Car

Finish	Number	Driver	Co-Driver	Team	Time	Margin
1	701	Akira Miura*	Jean-Michel Polato	Team Land Cruiser Toyota Auto Body	21:00:37	Leader
DNF	702	Martin Koloc*	Mirko Brun	Buggyra ZM Racing	DNF	N/A
DNF	706	Sam Heyvaert*	Krzysztof Zolty	Red-Lined Motorsport	DNF	N/A
DNF	707	Mathieu Serradori	Loïc Minaudier	Serradori Racing Team	DNF	N/A

Truck

Finish	Number	Driver	Co-Driver	Mechanic	Team	Time	Margin
1	752	Kay Huzink*	Joel Ebbers	Martin Roesink	Jongbloed Dakar Team	21:47:45	Leader
DNF	751	Gert Huzink*	Mario Kress	Rob Buursen	Jongbloed Dakar Team	DNF	N/A

SSV

Finish	Number	Driver	Co-Driver	Team	Time	Margin
1	723	Ali Oubassidi	Hanane Amraoui	Africa Rally Team	22:29:39	Leader
2	725	Marian Andreev	Sorin Stefan Santa	Xtremeplus	24:58:05	+ 2:28:26
3	721	Axel Geyskens	Sander Derikx	QFF Adventures	27:20:52	+ 4:51:13
4	722	Bartłomiej Kotwica	Arkadiusz Jędrzejewski	Grupa PBI	45:10:17	+ 22:40:38
5	724	Enrique Martinez Casanovas	Sofia Martinez Ganicheva	Enrique Martinez Casanovas	85:31:04	+ 63:01:25

Open stage winners

Stage	Car	Time	Truck	Time	SSV	Time
Prologue	Martin Koloc*	20:11.7	Kay Huzink*	20:54.7	Bartłomiej Kotwica*	22:35.0
Stage #1	Martin Koloc*	2:50:44	Gert Huzink*	2:42:03	Ali Oubassidi*	3:24:28
Stage #2	Martin Koloc*	3:57:59	Gert Huzink*	4:20:25	Ali Oubassidi*	4:30:14
Stage #3	Akira Miura*	5:11:50	Kay Huzink*	5:04:07	Ali Oubassidi*	1:35:22
Stage #4	Mathieu Serradori	3:06:45	Kay Huzink*	5:07:15	Bartłomiej Kotwica*	24:22:23
Stage #5	Akira Miura*	3:16:30	Kay Huzink*	3:10:23	Ali Oubassidi*	3:25:25