World Rally-Raid Championship

2023 Rallye du Maroc: Ronald Basso survives for T2 triumph

2 Mins read
Credit: Team Land Cruiser Toyota Auto Body

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

FinishNumberDriverCo-DriverTeamTimeMargin
1251Ronald Basso*Jean-Michel PolatoTeam Land Cruiser Toyota Auto Body22:14:17Leader
DNF250Akira Miura*Mayeul BarbetTeam Land Cruiser Toyota Auto BodyDNFN/A
* – Not competing in World Rally-Raid Championship

T2 stage winners

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

Overall winners

ClassNumberCompetitorTeamTime
T1201Yazeed Al-RajhiToyota Gazoo Racing14:49:09
T2251Ronald Basso*Team Land Cruiser Toyota Auto Body22:14:17
T3315Marek GoczałEnergyLandia Rally Team16:22:12
T4403João FerreiraSouth Racing Can-Am18:26:24
T5506Michiel Becx*Team de Rooy21:32:34
RallyGP8Toby PriceRed Bull KTM Factory Racing15:56:43
Rally232Bradley CoxBAS World KTM Racing Team17:06:37
Rally3164Cheikh Yves JacquemainAfrica Rallye Team23:42:39
Quad186Alexandre Giroud*Drag’on Rally Team21:07:24
Open Auto601Jérôme Cambier*MD Rallye Sport21:21:46
Open SSV653Tomas Mickus*BRO Racing21:42:23
Road to Dakar Bike71Toby Hederics*BAS World KTM Racing Team19:11:16
Road to Dakar SSV420William Grarre*Team Horizon Off-Road21:50:39
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Justin is not an off-road racer, but he writes about it for The Checkered Flag.
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