MOTORSPORT: Dakar glory for Toyota at last

After breaking its Le Mans duck last year, Toyota has finally won the Dakar Rally, but more exciting for Australia is Toby Price’s second victory in the motorcycle division – despite riding the 10-day event in Peru with a broken wrist.

“The pain and torture has been worth it,” the 31-year-old from NSW’s Hunter Valley said in Lima after giving Austrian manufacturer KTM its 18th straight Dakar motorcycle win.

Qatar’s “Prince of the Desert” Nasser Al-Attiyah delivered the long-awaited four-wheel victory for Toyota, which has had more vehicles than any manufacturer compete in the 41 Dakars – originally in Europe and Africa before terrorism fears drove the marathon rally to South America.

In the 24 Hours of Le Mans the Japanese company won after Audi and Porsche had pulled out of prototype sports car racing, and in the Dakar its breakthrough came following Peugeot’s withdrawal of its factory team after a hat-trick of successes.

Al-Attiyah’s still formidable rivals fell by the wayside this year. France’s ‘Monsieur Dakar’ Stephane Peterhansel, a 13-time winner (seven times in cars and six on bikes), crashed his X-Raid Mini on the second last day.

Last year’s winner Carlos Sainz had been out of contention from early on but won the short final stage in another two-wheel-drive Mini.

Another Spaniard, Nani Roma, finished second outright, 46 minutes behind Al-Attiyah, in a four-wheel drive X-Raid Mini – his first podium since his 2014 victory, but he hasn’t won a stage for four years.

French WRC legend Sebastien Loeb was third in a privateer Peugeot DKR 3008, winning four stages but otherwise hampered by mechanical problems and navigational mistakes.

The Holden ute of Victorian dairy farmer Steve Riley and co-driver Trev Hanks retired from the event twice – shortly before and soon after the rest day in the middle of the 3000 kilometres of competition, mostly over sand dunes and at high altitude.

Al-Attiyah’s victory is his third in the Dakar – he first achieved it with Volkswagen in 2011 and then Mini in 2015.

“Fantastic. Very, very difficult, but no mistakes,” he said after leading the cars classification on all but the second day this time.

Meanwhile, Price’s two motorcycle victories have come from just five starts.

His historic 2016 triumph in a much longer rally raid predominantly in Argentina and Chile took more than 48 hours of riding, this one less than 34 hours and without a stage victory until the decisive last day – but he had the burden of a right wrist broken weeks earlier.

Price trailed Pablo Quintanilla by more than a minute at the start of the final day but the Chilean crashed his Husqvarna – a KTM with a different badge – within 10km, broke an ankle, but still finished, albeit almost 20 minutes behind the Aussie.

Last year’s bike winner, Austrian Matthias Walkner, and Britain’s Sam Sunderland ended up making it another clean sweep of the podium for KTM.

“It’s very crazy to say that we (meaning he) won the Dakar Rally with no stage victories until today,” Price said.

“It’s really crazy. I’m over the moon, I’m so damned stoked. It’s been a long 10 days.

“I’ll just wait and see what damage I've done to my wrist. The pain and torture has been worth it.

“I thought I would only be able to do two stages and then pull out and that would have been me done, but the support from everyone back home in Australia and then having some things go my way and a bit of luck, it just worked out in the end.

“It’s been an unreal rally.

“It (the pain) feels like there are about five people driving a knife in my wrist now. It’s not very comfortable, it’s not very enjoyable, but at the end of the day the victory has paid off.

“The win takes away all the pain. If it wasn’t for this victory it wouldn't have been as sweet, but at the end of the day I was just happy to make the finishing line.

“I’m not the new boss of the rally – there are so many guys that can win this race.

“I just don’t like giving up, I don’t like quitting. That’s about it. I love being out on my bike and I love riding and to be here with all the Dakar family and the KTM team it’s amazing. So, yeah, we’re pumped.”

Australian rookies Ben Young, from Melbourne, and James Ferguson, from Newcastle, also finished – on KTMs – in 51st and 67th places.

While Sebastien Loeb now has to front up for his Hyundai debut in the World Rally Championship opener, the Monte Carlo Rally, in just a week, the GT season dawns in circuit racing.

Three top Aussies will be driving GTs in the 24 Hours of Daytona in America on January 26-27.

In the GT Le Mans class, Supercars star Chaz Mostert is one of four drivers in a BMW M8 GTE along with the inspirational Alex Zanardi, the Italian with prosthetic legs after an horrendous open-wheeler crash almost 20 years ago.

Expatriate Sydneysider Ryan Briscoe continues in a Ford GT for Chip Ganassi Racing in GTLM, while European-based Matt Campbell will make his Daytona debut in one of six of Porsche’s new 911 GT3 Rs.

The one that Campbell and American Patrick Long, who has raced quite a lot in Australia, will share with two other Americans is one of four customer Porsches entered in the GT Daytona class along with two factory entries in GTLM.

“I’m not really sure what to expect – just want to do the best possible job,” Campbell said.

Fernando Alonso will make his Daytona race debut too in a Cadillac prototype that will be up against Roger Penske’s Acuras (Hondas) as well as Nissans and improved Mazdas for outright honours.

Many of the drivers in the Florida classic will immediately head to the Bathurst 12-Hour the following weekend (more on that in coming days).

The separate Australian GT Championship expands to seven rounds this year, starting at the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne in mid-March, and welcomes six new models – most notably Aston Martin’s Vantage with a Mercedes AMG 4-litre twin-turbocharged V8 and McLaren’s 720S. The others are Audi’s latest R8 LMS, Lamborghini’s Huracan with a new engine block, Porsche’s Type 991 R.2 and Nissan’s GT-R Nismo.

The series returns to Western Australia and the Gold Coast, with endurance rounds at Victoria’s Phillip Island and Sandown as well as South Australia’s The Bend – which in 2020 will host a round of the Asian Le Mans Series on a date yet to be fixed.

Some of this year’s Australian GT rounds are on the same program as Supercars. (The Formula Ford national series is on at the Supercars round at Victoria’s Winton circuit in late May too.)

The GT Trophy Series and Trofeo Challenge will conclude at Challenge Bathurst in November.

2019 CAMS Australian GT Championship [GT3/GT4]

Round 1 – March 14-17, Australian Grand Prix, Melbourne

Round 2 – May 2-4, Barbagallo Raceway, Perth, WA

Round 3 – June 7-9, Phillip Island, Victoria

Round 4 – July 12-14, The Bend, South Australia

Round 5 – September 20-22, Sandown, Melbourne

Round 6 – October 25-27, Gold Coast

Round 7 – November 8-10, Sandown, Melbourne

2019 CAMS Australian Endurance Championship

Round 1 – June 7-9, Phillip Island, Victoria

Round 2 – July 12-14, The Bend, South Australia

Round 3 – September 20-22, Sandown, Melbourne

2019 Australian GT - Trophy Series/Trofeo Challenge

Round 1 – March 14-17, Australian Grand Prix, Melbourne

Round 2 – May 2-4, Barbagallo Raceway, Perth, WA

Round 3 – October 25-27, Gold Coast

Round 4 – November 8-10, Sandown, Melbourne

AGT SuperSprint – November 28-29, Mt Panorama, Bathurst