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Long-time Dakar Rally record holder and participant Benediktas Vanagas will represent Team Toyota at the upcoming Dakar Rally and will start under the new name of Inbank Toyota Gazoo Racing Baltics. This is the first official global assessment of the Lithuanian team, announced in a press release.
Recognition of the Dakar leaders for the Lithuanian team
The news that among all the Baltic countries, the only private B. Vanags team can obtain factory team status, reached the racer during the start of the 2020 Dakar Rally. The director of Toyota Gazoo Racing Europe presented a proposal to the Lithuanians to become a semi-factory team, to use their name and have even greater access to Toyota Corporation technologies. According to B. Vanags, this is an even greater opportunity to join the global Toyota family and a great recognition of the Lithuanian team from the toughest racing leaders on the planet.
It took many years to win the Toyota Gazoo Racing title. The team has shown high results for many years and was one of the best private Dakar teams to use Toyota cars. As a result, after various stages of deliberations in various divisions of Toyota Corporation in Europe, South Africa and at Toyota Gazoo Racing headquarters in Japan, the decision was made to appoint the Vanagas team.
The new name: more responsibility
According to Vanags, while the name change will not add to the team’s budget, it gives Toyota a unique status in the eyes of the corporation, means greater responsibility and higher expectations from the public, fans and Toyota itself for the results. . “Every runner’s dream is to become a member of the factory team family. In our case, there was a rare opportunity to remain unique in terms of managing their organization, while utilizing the latest technologies and competencies from the sports division of Toyota, Gazoo Racing. We are currently finalizing the last aspects of the agreement with Toyota, which was influenced by the general situation of Covid-19 in the world, “said B. Vanagas, the fastest former Dakar driver among Lithuanians.
From the region to the world stage
B. Vanagas, who has participated in the Dakar Rally among Lithuanians most of the time as a driver, has been developing a close relationship with Toyota since 2014, when he bought the first Toyota car for his third start in the toughest race on the planet. . More than a year later, the racer became the official Toyota ambassador to the Baltic countries and five years later, Toyota Baltic began development of the limited edition Toyota Hilux Benediktas Vanagas.
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