The Rally Of Morocco Is Underway And It's The Ultimate Test For Teams Ahead Of Dakar
The world's toughest races demand the world's toughest trials.
The Rally of Morocco has kicked off, and it's drawn a big number of competitors who plan to run next year in Dakar. The week-long event officially runs from October 7 through October 13. It's billed as a kind of test run for the historic Dakar Rally, but it's part of both the FIA Cross Country World Cup and the FIM Cross Country Rallies World Championship. Meaning, it's an important Rally!
The race route will cover nearly 1,666 miles of the Moroccan Sahara Desert. It'll be run by teams of drivers and riders from motorsport giants like Toyota Gazoo and Honda Racing among many, many others.
This rally is actually set to be one of the major trials for Gazoo Racing's reworked Hilux. The famous Toyota truck gets beefier running gear, per GR, and goes from 32 inch to 37 inch tires. More importantly, the Hilux is also getting the new 3.5-liter twin turbo V6 developed for the 300-Series Land Cruiser.
That engine already makes 409 horsepower and 479 lb-ft of torque in the road-going Land Cruiser, but it's going to make much more than that in race trim at the Rally of Morocco. And as if the formidable new Hilux wasn't enough, Toyota's team boasts three consecutive FIA World Cup victories.
As far as the action on two-wheels goes at Morocco, Cycle News reports this is the first time the Monster Energy Honda Team will be fully assembled since running at the 2021 Dakar Rally. HRC riders Ricky Brabec, José Ignacio Cornejo, Pablo Quintanilla and Joan Barreda are going to contest the win for Big Red from the saddle of their CRF450 Rallys.
Between the Rebelle Rally and the Rallye Du Maroc, off-road motorsport fans have quite a bit to look forward to. Not to mention, the anticipation that this Rally builds for the 2022 Dakar Rally. You can keep up with Rally of Morocco here.
