Since 1978 the Dakar Rally has made a name for itself as one of the most gruelling two weeks in motorsport and this year proved no different, with over 40 per cent of vehicles having pulled out at the halfway point of the competition.
DENSO partnered with Team Land Cruiser Toyota Auto Body for another consecutive year, where they piloted two Land Cruisers and competed in the production category.
Despite a few hair-raising moments the team triumphed over the obstacles thrown at them in the 9,000km race across South America which took the Land Cruisers across the dunes of Peru, the mountains of Bolivia and the mud banks of Argentina.
The vehicles featured a reengineered front and rear design and a V8 biodisel 1 VD-FTV engine which runs on biodiesel and a mixture of vegetable oil and algae.
Car #328 was driven by the French winner of last year’s Production category and newest member of TLC, Christian Lavieille and his navigator Jean-Pierre Garcin.
In car #337 sat Japanese driver Akira Miura who raced alongside French navigator Laurent Lichtleuchter; this was the third rally for the pair, who were looking to improve on their second place finish in 2017.
Stage one was a shorter route taking the race from Lima to the soft dunes near Pisco, Peru.
The team got off to a storming start, with Christian Lavielle and Jean-Pierre motoring to a first place win with Mirua and Lichtleuchter not far behind in second.
Winning form
After a gruelling six am start and some minor setbacks, the TLC drivers once again proved they were on winning form, finishing in the top two positions to make it two wins out of two for the team.
During stage four on the San Juan de Marcona loop of Peru, the 330km route was littered with sink holes, rocky terrain and tricky canyons all of which could spell disaster for vehicles at any time.
Unfortunately luck was not on the side of last year’s Production champion Lavielle, who was forced to bow out of the race in his first competition for team TLC.
Mirua did not let the pressure get to him however, and following Peru held on to first position in the Production category.
Golden streak
Stage seven took the Bikes, Quads, Trucks and UTVs from La Paz to Uyuni, Bolivia, and contained a 425km high-altitude race towards Uyuni.
The route was peppered by heavy rainfall making conditions even harder but once again TLC showed its resilience and pulled through with Mirua taking poll position and leaving him set for a podium finish at the final stage in Cordoba.
Stage 11 got hearts beating before it had even started as the infamous dunes of Fiambalá which had laid claim to many racers of previous Dakars loomed on the horizon.
But TLC’s Miura and Lichtleuchter remained focused and their partnership remained on a winning streak as the duo took first position in the treacherous stage.
Unstoppable performance
The penultimate stage led team TLC from San Juan to Córdoba in Argentina on a route that stretched on for 369 km across particularly fast trails of hardened soils; Mirua and Lichtleuchter took full advantage of the faster tracks to cruise into first place for the sixth time, leaving just 120km between them and the Dakar Production crown.
Stage 14 and the final part of the 2018 Dakar Rally took competitors round a 120km loop of Córdoba, incorporating multiple river crossings and a number of stone hazards.
Despite the loss of teammates Christian Lavielle and Jean-Pierre earlier in the race, Akira Mirua and Laurent Lichtleuchter brought home a fifth consecutive Dakar win in the Production class for TLC as they once again demonstrated the resilience, speed and handling of the Toyota Land Cruiser and its DENSO components.
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