TOYOTA

Argentina’s Juan Cruz Yacopini recently concluded the best season of his career, finishing P3 in the W2RC championship, navigated by Catalan Dani Oliveras Carreras. Juan Cruz acknowledges that his P7 in the 2023 Dakar was a great boost for a successful year, but he adds that the keys were consistency, finishing the races, making few mistakes and having Dani as his navigator. The Mendoza native - who comes from a family connected to motorsport - competed in 2021 and 2022 navigated by his father Alejandro, who had been a driver in the nine Dakars. Juan Cruz began competing in 2018 in the CaNav and won the T1.1 category in 2019. In February 2020, he won alongside his father the first edition of the SARR. That victory and the support of Toyota Argentina provided the motivation to make it to the start ramp in Jeddah. During the rally, an accident with a truck in stage three forced them to retire, but they continued in Experience category. On their return home, they competed in the 2021 SARR and once again won in the car category. At the international level, in the Kazakhstan Rally they crashed and retired. The Morocco Rally offered them revenge with a place in the top ten. In 2022 they won the SARR in the Autos T1.1 category for the third consecutive year and in addition to participating in the Dakar and Morocco, Juan Cruz also competed in the Baja Aragon and Baja Italia. In 2023, in addition to their participation in the W2RC, they competed in the World Cup for Cross Country Bajas, a discipline that allows them to gain speed and experience in new terrains. This will be Dani Oliveras Carreras' 10th Dakar. The Catalan native says that the years have gone by so quickly, after five years of racing motorcycles and preparing for his 5th participation in cars. Dani looks back and exclaims: "Who would have thought 11 years ago that I would have achieved all those results! I like this sport so much. I like to do things well and I'm very motivated. Not even in my wildest dreams could I have dreamed of all these results." Juan Cruz and Dani aboard the Overdrive Hilux T1+ arrive at this Dakar with a wealth of experience and a symbiotic relationship. Their goal is to finish as high as possible.