In January, Nasser Al-Attiyah dominated the Dakar Rally in his Toyota GR DKR Hilux T1+ to win by over an hour on his closest competition and seal his second consecutive victory in the legendary event. Since then, he and the Hilux have become the points leader in both the World Rally-Raid Championship and FIA World Cup for Cross-Country Bajas.
On 13–16 January, Al-Attiyah will bring the Hilux with him back to England to participate in the Goodwood Festival of Speed.
Al-Attiyah and the Hilux conducted an unprecedented triple performance at the 2022 festival, running the Hillclimb and Forest Rally Stage in addition to the Off-Road Arena. Al-Attiyah set a time of 108.02 seconds in the Hillclimb, which ranked sixty-first of sixty-two finishers. The Hilux was among five vehicles primarily used for off-road competition to attempt the hillclimb alongside the Nitrocross FC1-X with Jenson Button, a World Rally Championship-spec Ford Focus driven by Seb Perez, and a pair of Extreme E Spark ODYSSEY 21 cars courtesy of Andretti United XE and Veloce Racing.
For 2023, the Off-Road Arena will feature a large ramp dubbed “Nasser’s Jump” designed by Al-Attiyah and his co-driver Mathieu Baumel.
The Toyota Hilux T1+ is regarded as the best rally raid vehicle today, with Toyota Gazoo Racing‘s model having won three Dakar Rallies, the inaugural W2RC, and three of its preceding FIA World Cups for Cross-Country Rallies all with Al-Attiyah. A Hilux Overdrive driven by Yazeed Al-Rajhi has also won the two latest Cross-Country Bajas World Cups. While the Hilux Overdrive is built by Imperial in partnership with Overdrive Racing, TGR and SVR Hallspeed produce the GR DKR Hilux; a privateer-friendly Hilux designed by WCT Engineering débuted in 2023. 2009 Dakar winner Giniel de Villiers participated in the 2014 Goodwood Forest Stage in a Hilux Overdrive.
Toyota Gazoo Racing also plans to bring their WRC-headlining Yaris Rally1 Hybrid and its upcoming WRC2 counterpart and the 24 Hours of Le Mans-winning GR010 Hypercar to Goodwood, along with the GR Supra GT4 EVO and the hydrogen-powered Mirai Sport Concept.
Goodwood is sandwiched between the Italian Baja and Baja España Aragón, both Bajas World Cup rounds, meaning Al-Attiyah and the Hilux will be racing in three different countries in as many consecutive weeks.
