Benediktas Vanagas upgrades to Toyota GR DKR Hilux T1+ for Dakar 2023

Lithuania’s Benediktas Vanagas will have an eleventh go at the Dakar Rally in 2023, and with some more firepower this time as he and Toyota Gazoo Racing Baltics will pilot the enhanced Toyota GT DKR Hilux T1+.

Kuldar Sikk of Estonia will continue as his co-driver; the Balts already work together in the FIA European Cup for Cross-Country Bajas and won the Hungarian Baja in August. Filipe Palmeiro was Vanagas’ navigator for the 2022 Rally, but he has joined up with João Ferreira in T3 for 2023.

Vanagas made his Dakar début in 2013 in an OSCar before switching to Toyota in 2015. Competing in a Hilux, he scored his best finish of eleventh in 2019 while his 2022 effort was cut short by a retirement in Stage #4.

The Hilux T1+, nicknamed “BlackHawk VII”, is lighter than the original T1 model and sports a 3.5-litre V6 twin turbo engine versus the T1’s 5-litre V8. The T1+ also uses a monoshock system rather than dual shocks, which allows for the vehicle to better recover from hard landings and uneven terrain. Vanagas described the T1+ as “externally identical to the previous version, but very different inside.”

Other teams that use the Hilux T1+ include flagship Toyota Gazoo Racing and Overdrive Racing, and the former won the 2022 Rally with Nasser Al-Attiyah. Toyota is also one of just two manufacturers with a T1+ vehicle alongside Prodrive with its Hunter; although M-Sport and Neil Woolridge Motorsport are developing a Ford Ranger T1+, they will not enter the truck into the 2023 Rally.

Fellow Lithuanian Vaidotas Žala will also compete in T1+ in a Hunter after spending the last three Rallies in a Mini. Conversely, another countryman Antanas Juknevičius, who normally pilots a Hilux like Vanagas, has opted out due to high costs of purchasing such cars.

Vanagas will test the new Hilux on Thursday. The 2023 Dakar Rally begins on 31 December 2022.

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