The 2024 Asia Cross Country Rally did not go to plan for Team Mitsubishi Ralliart and their upgraded Mitsubishi Triton, but the team feels they accumulated enough data to be confident in the truck for later races.
2022 winner Chayapon Yotha initially led the overall after three stages, but disaster struck him on the fifth and penultimate stage when a mechanical failure forced him to retire. Team-mate Kazuto Koide towed him to the end of the leg where he bowed out altogether.
With Yotha out of the picture, rival Toyota assumed the overall lead with Mana Pornsiricherd. Pornsiricherd finished the job by finishing sixth on the final day to score the first AXCR win for Toyota Gazoo Racing Thailand.
Katsuhiko Taguchi ended up being the team’s highest finisher in fifth overall after racing fairly conservatively. It was a three-spot improvement from his début in 2023. Sakchai Hantrakul finished a distant twenty-seventh due to a litany of problems that plagued his Triton. Koide was twenty-fifth, driving a 2023 Triton production car in a supporting role.
“I am happy to have improved my position from last year, but I am also disappointed because I had a good feeling that I could aim for a higher position,” commented Taguchi. “We will use this years’ experience as feedback to further improve the driving performance of the Triton next year, so that we can stay competitive at the top.”
After Mitsubishi Ralliart won in their first AXCR in 2022 followed by Yotha finishing third in 2023, 2024 seemed like a major disappointment. Perhaps twisting the knife further, the team had provided a multitude of changes to their challenger for 2024 that included a new six-speed sequential transmission, as opposed to the previous truck’s manual, more tread size, and a full four-wheel-drive system. While it had slightly less engine displacement at 2,439 cubic centimetres, it featured a new rigid four-link coil spring suspension.
In any case, the team was satisfied with how the Triton fared. Taguchi described it as “just easy to drive.”
“This year’s Triton was perfected with enhanced performance, showing powerful driving that covered the displacement gap with our rivals and even took the overall lead at one point,” began team director and two-time Dakar Rally winner Hiroshi Masuoka. “It is unfortunate that we were unable to win, but the Triton was able to fully demonstrate its excellent off-road capabilities that Mitsubishi vehicles have honed over the decades.
“After returning to Japan, Koide, an employee driver who had competed for the first time, and others will reflect the valuable data and knowledge gained from this rally in the development of production vehicles, adding a new chapter to our tradition of leveraging motorsports experience for vehicle development. We will undergo rigorous tests again, and Team Mitsubishi Ralliart will make a comeback next year. We would like to thank our sponsors for their generous support and our fans around the world for their enthusiastic cheering.”
Mitsubishi was one of the top marques at the Dakar Rally, winning twelve times from 1984 to 2009 before Ralliart scaled back their operations. Ralliart, the Japanese manufacturer’s high performance division, revived their rally raid division in 2022. Mitsubishi’s Brazilian subsidiary also launched a rally programme in 2023 that races the Triton; on Tuesday, Mitsubishi Motors Brasil unveiled a Triton Ultimate Racing T1+ car that will run next week’s Rally dos Sertões. By comparison, the AXCR Triton is a production-based T1D vehicle.
