Toyota Gazoo Racing finally victorious in 2024 Asia Cross Country Rally

Toyota Gazoo Racing is one of the most well known marques in international motorsport with plenty of success from either their flagship team or their regional subsidiaries. However, for all the Dakar Rallies and World Rally-Raid Championships it has won, a Toyota Hilux had never won the Asia Cross Country Rally.

That finally changed in 2024. In their seventh try at the race, Toyota Gazoo Racing Thailand broke through as Mana Pornsiricherd narrowly defeated the Isuzu D-Max of Suwat Limjirapinya for the win.

Driving a Toyota Hilux Revo, Pornsiricherd won the opening leg but went off course and finished a paltry twenty-fifth in Stage #2, dropping him to seventeenth. He clawed his way back up the order with a third in Stage #3 before winning the fourth to move up into second behind 2022 winner Chayapon Yotha of rival Team Mitsubishi Ralliart.

Although leading by twenty-four minutes after four days, Yotha’s rally came to an abrupt end with a mechanical failure on the penultimate stage. Team-mate Kazuto Koide towed him to the finish, but a three-hour time penalty ended his race. Pornsiricherd inherited the overall lead with another stage win. Limjirapinya claimed the last stage in an Isuzu D-Max 1–2–3 finish while Pornsiricherd was sixth, but the former could not close the gap.

Thongchai Klinkate, who finished second in Stage #6, was third to win the T2A-D class for production cars. TGR driver Ikuo Hanawa, who has been focused on desert races in North America like SCORE International and the Mint 400, missed out on the podium after leading the overall following two legs. Defending champion Takuma Aoki placed seventh.

Masanao Nitta was twenty-eighth in his natural fibre Toyota Hilux. It was among a handful of rather unique vehicles in the field alongside Ho Huang Chen‘s fully electric Luxgen D31C5S, which finished thirty-fourth, and the Suzuki Jimny Sierra pickup truck of Roslyn Shen that was built by students at Chuoh Technical School. Shen’s truck rolled over during a very steep and rocky descent in Stage #4, a section that was so punishing for cars that only twenty-eight of the forty-five starters reached the finish.

Masato Kawabata won the T1G class in the first AXCR for actor Show Aikawa and his FLEX SHOW AIKAWA Racing since 2019.

The two-wheeled side saw the overall lead change hands multiple times at the end of each of the first four stages. Mario Renato Karel Iroth led the first day before falling behind the next day, and Yasubumi Sunakawa assumed the spot for two days until penalties dropped him out of the race. Norihisa Matsumoto won the fifth stage and rode off to the win.

Masahito Watanabe and Mashiro Ozeki reached the finish in their sidecar motorcycle, a modified Husqvarna FE 501. After being the only sidecar in 2023, they were joined by the Ural T TWD of Ade Mohamad Yusuf and Teddy Wibowo until the latter team dropped out in Stage #3.

The rally exclusively took place in Thailand for safety reasons after originally being scheduled to go through Malaysia.

Overall results

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