2023 Dakar Rally: Husband/wife duo Juan Morera, Lidia Ruba win Dakar Classic

The Dakar Classic is like a moving museum of racing history as competitors race through the deserts of Saudi Arabia in vehicles built between 1979 (the first year of the Dakar Rally) and 1999. It also stands out from the Rally in that one’s position is based on navigation ability rather than time, meaning the winner is determined by whoever has the fewest points like in golf.

As if it were a guerrilla army (or the Rally’s T2 category), Toyota Land Cruisers dominated the Classic. Six finished in the top ten with all but one being the HDJ80, a model of the Land Cruiser that peaked in the late 1980s and early 1990s, including a 1–2 finish led by Juan Morera. Morera and his wife Lidia Ruba Cuartero recorded 428 points, 101 fewer than Carlos Santaolalla, with two stage wins. It was a strong rebound for Morera, a businessman who raced a Fiat Panda in 2022 but was plagued by mechanical troubles.

“Reality has surpassed my dreams,” said Morera. “It sounds like a cliché, but it’s the plain truth. We knew we could do well, but everything went very well for us and that’s what allows you to win the Dakar.”

Land Cruisers swept the podium as Paolo Bedeschi was third in the BJ71, which existed at around the same time as the HDJ80.

“These days have been intense, tiring, challenging, but also full of emotions,” posted Bedeschi’s co-driver Daniele Bottallo. “We placed third overall in the Classic category and this pays off for all our efforts. The Dakar, the ‘toughest race in the world,’ tests you both physically and mentally. In addition to the medal and the trophy, I bring home many feelings, many good memories of exciting moments. Met many interesting people, saw beautiful landscapes, lived a dream.”

The Land Cruiser would have occupied the top seven if not for the Nissan Terrano II, also known as the Mistral in Japan and the Ford Maverick in Europe, of Riccardo Garosci. The Terrano, especially its predecessor also marketed as the Pathfinder, won the most stages thanks to Urbano Clerici who claimed four of the last five legs though inconsistency relegated him to fiftieth overall. Nissan also scored a fifth win thanks to the Patrol K260 of Luís Pedrals Marot, who competed in the Dakar Rally on a bike in the 2000s.

2022 winner Serge Mogno finished fifth. Two spots behind him were Erik Qvick and co-driver Jean-Marie Lurquin, whose son Fabian Lirquin was the T1 runner-up as navigator for Sébastien Loeb.

Eighth-placed Julien Texier was the highest finisher among those with vehicles before 1986 in a Porsche 911. Texier, who restores Porsches in his native France, raced a replica of the 911 that competed in the East African Safari Rally and the early Paris–Dakar Rally. Such a finish perhaps also comes with additional publicity for the 911 as Porsche is set to roll out the 911 Dakar model.

Stage #1 winner Jérôme Galpin came up just short of making the top ten in eleventh. The NASCAR Whelen Euro Series president and his wife Anne drove the Team FJ Protruck, a Ford truck previously used in the Rally by Thierry Saby. While just shy of the upper eighth, the Galpins set the fastest times in each stage, which allowed them to start the Classic ahead of the field, for the second straight year. Ondřej Klymčiw and his Škoda 130 LR, a 1980s Group B rally car, also won a stage but was out of overall contention early and settled for thirty-seventh.

The Classic was split into groups based on the speed capability and age of their cars, with H1 being open to all vehicles while H2 is for faster vehicles. They are then split by era with H1/2.1 through .3 being for pre-1986, .4 through .6 for 1987 to 1996, and 2.7 through 2.9 for 1996 to 1999. Each specific designation is also based on the type of automobile: those classified .1, .4, and 2.7 are 2×4; .2, .5, and 2.8 are 4×4; and .3, .6, and 2.9 are trucks. For example, the top three were classified in Group H1 as their Land Cruisers are 2×4 vehicles. There is also the H0 group for slower and weaker cars, won by Bertus Alteena (thirty-third overall) in his Volkswagen Taro, a rebadge of the fifth-generation Toyota Hilux (whose upgraded, modern version won the Dakar Rally).

Mogno led H2 while Galpin claimed T3. Among the trucks, Marco Giannecchini claimed the H0T group in an IVECO EuroCargo (fifty-sixth overal0) whereas Juan Manuel González Corominas (seventeenth) topped H1T with his Mercedes-Benz 1638 tractor.

Unlike the main Rally, the Classic ended after the thirteenth stage, one day earlier. The third leg was cancelled due to rain, a fate that somewhat befell the Rally as its stage was shortened.

Dakar Classic overall top ten

Finish	Number	Driver	Co-Driver	Team	Vehicle	Points	Margin
1	778	Juan Morera	Lidia Ruba Cuartero	Toyota Classic	Toyota Land Cruiser HDJ80	428	Leader
2	704	Carlos Santaolalla	Aran Sol I Juanola	Toyota Classic	Toyota Land Cruiser HDJ80	529	+ 101
3	776	Paolo Bedeschi	Daniele Bottallo	Bedeschi-Bottallo	Toyota Land Cruiser BJ71	631	+ 203
4	790	Riccardo Garosci	Rudy Briani	Tecnosport	Nissan Terrano II	813	+ 385
5	700	Serge Mogno	Florent Drulhon	Team FSO	Toyota Land Cruiser HDJ80	889	+ 461
6	728	Dirk van Rompuy	Christiaan Michel Goris	TH-Trucks Team	Toyota Land Cruiser HDJ80	923	+ 495
7	793	Erik Qvick	Jean-Marie Lurquin	TH-Trucks Team	Toyota Land Cruiser HDJ80	1,055	+ 627
8	707	Julien Texier	Jérémy Athimon	Team Logistic Rallye	Porsche 911	1,163	+ 735
9	716	Rene Declercq	John Demeester	VW Iltis Team	Bombardier Iltis	1,414	+ 986
10	714	Cédric Zolliker	Clemens Lansing	Zolliker-Lansing	Toyota Land Cruiser HDJ80	1,732	+ 1,304

Dakar Classic stage winners

Stage	Number	Driver	Team	Vehicle	Points
Stage #1	701	Jérôme Galpin	Team FJ	Team FJ Protruck	57
Stage #2	778	Juan Morera	Toyota Classic	Toyota Land Cruiser HDJ80	21
Stage #3	N/A	Cancelled due to rain	N/A	N/A	N/A
Stage #4	748	Luís Pedrals Marot	TH-Trucks Team	Nissan Patrol K260	28
Stage #5	709	Ondřej Klymčiw	Klymčiw Racing	Škoda 130 LR	12
Stage #6	704	Carlos Santaolalla	Toyota Classic	Toyota Land Cruiser HDJ80	13
Stage #7	776	Paolo Bedeschi	Bedeschi-Bottallo	Toyota Land Cruiser BJ71	26
Stage #8	778	Juan Morera	Toyota Classic	Toyota Land Cruiser HDJ80	38
Stage #9	750	Urbano Alfonso Gherardo Clerici	Tecnosport	Nissan Terrano	21
Stage #10	750	Urbano Alfonso Gherardo Clerici	Tecnosport	Nissan Terrano	12
Stage #11	704	Carlos Santaolalla	Toyota Classic	Toyota Land Cruiser HDJ80	21
Stage #12	750	Urbano Alfonso Gherardo Clerici	Tecnosport	Nissan Terrano	15
Stage #13	750	Urbano Alfonso Gherardo Clerici	Tecnosport	Nissan Terrano	16

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