Mucho Gusto, FIA! Toyota Wins Sonora Rally-Raid in Northern Mexico

• The FIA minted a new series last year, the World Rally-Raid Championship. Entrants follow paper route books across unmarked wilderness, with no GPS allowed. This year it made the Sonora Rally part of the series.

• The Sonora Rally has been held for nine years so far, in the wild sand dunes and trackless desert of the Sonoran state in Northern Mexico.

• Five-time Dakar winner Nasser Al-Attiyah won in a Toyota Hilux.

Qatari racer Nasser Al-Attiyah, who has won the Dakar Rally five times in addition to numerous other off-road racing victories, added to his resume last week with a win in the Sonora Rally in Northern Mexico. Al-Attiyah and co-driver/navigator Mathieu Baumel of France won the six-day FIA Rally Raid in a Toyota Gazoo Racing DKR Hilux truck, after rivals Sebastien Loeb and Fabian Lurquin crashed out on day three.

“Feeling good,” Al-Attiyah said at the finish. “I am happy to win the Sonora Rally. We have an amazing week and a good lead now. This was very important for the championship.”

Nine-time World Rally Championship driver Loeb and co-driver Lurquin were ahead at the start but came upon an unseen sharp turn that sent them straight into a ditch fairly hard. The impact damaged their vehicle but broke the shoulder of Lurquin, and the pair had to drop out of the event.

This is the ninth year of the Sonora Rally, where competitors must navigate using only maps, route book, and compass. No GPS or other modern conveniences are allowed. This is the first year the rally has been part of the newly formed FIA World Rally-Raid Championship, a series that is in only its second year.

Sonora was the third leg of the six-race 2023 W2RC championship, with Dakar being first and with the rest of the calendar filled out by races in the Middle East and South America and the finale in Morocco.

Al-Attiyah and Baumel were in a race version of the four-door Toyota Hilux, powered by what is essentially the same 3.5-liter twin-turbo V6 found in the Lexus LS 500. The race engine setup in the Toyota used the stock turbos, intercoolers and other stock components found in the Lexus. It’s not all stock—the race engine is behind the two seats for a mid-mounted layout. Toyota GR DKR Hilux T1+s finished 1,3,4, and 5 in Dakar earlier this year and 1,2, and 5 at Sonora.