N°248 Auto TOYOTA GAZOO RACING CZECH

TOMAS OUREDNICEK

(cze) 1.81m / 83kg

Loisirs

Racing, music

Sponsors

Toyota Czech, Toyota Motor Manufacturing Czech, MusicData, NEXO, Agados, XTLine, LiquiMoly, GoldNutrition, PRIM, Pneu Kafka, Glenowell, MANN Filter, Alfain, OMP, Endless

2021: 42nd
2020: 36th
2019: 17th
2018: 33rd
2016: 46th
2012: 40th (navigator for Miroslav Zapletal, trucks)
2010: Ab. Stage 7 (co-driver for Miroslav Zapletal)
2009: 7th (co-driver for Miroslav Zapletal)

2023: Baja Aragon (16th, T1+)
2022: Riverside Baja (1st)
2021: Baja Satu Mare (1st, T1)
2020: Baja Poland (4th)
2019: Morocco Desert Challenge (26th), Hungarian Baja (1st, TH), Baja 500 Romania (3rd)
2018: Morocco Desert Challenge (Ab.), Hungarian Baja (Ab.), Baja Poland (1st, TH)
2017: Morocco Desert Challenge (1st), Riverside Baja (3rd), Baja España Aragon (15th), Hungarian Baja (8th), Rallye du Maroc (15th)
2015: Hungarian national championship (1st, T1.1.2)
2014: FIA CEZ Championship (2nd)
2012: Hungarian national championship (1st, T1.1.2)
2011: FIA Cross-Country Rallies World Cup (4th)
2009: Czech national championship (1st), Hungarian national championship (1st)
2008: PAX Rally (9th)

Interview

“I feel like this will be my first Dakar!”

Tomas Ourednicek is gearing up for his first Dakar appearance since 2021, and the 54-year-old is back with a bang as part of the new Toyota Gazoo Racing Czech team. Tomas has been involved in rally-raid for around 15 years, winning the Czech and Hungarian national championships as a co-driver in 2009. He made his Dakar debut earlier that year, guiding compatriot Miroslav Zapletal to an excellent seventh place in the cars. He competed alongside Miroslav again in 2010 and 2012, before getting behind the wheel himself in 2016 and 2018 with Buggyra Racing and South Racing. He secured his best result as a driver in 2019, as part of Martin Prokop’s MP-Sport team (17th). After four years in a Ford, Tomas switched to a Toyota Hilux in 2021, but the vehicle he’ll be driving at Dakar 2024 is a different animal altogether. Since his last participation, the experienced Czech driver has forged a regional partnership with Toyota Gazoo Racing, winners of the last two editions in the cars with Nasser Al Attiyah. Although his GR Hilux doesn’t boast the twin-turbo V6 engine that proved so effective at Dakar 2023, Tomas is still stepping up the T1+ class with a five-litre V8 engine that should help him fight for a solid overall position. For the fifth time, he will link up with co-driver David Kripal, who had a real adventure at Dakar 2023. The 41-year-old was only supposed to be doing some media work instead of competing, but ended up being thrown into Antoine Galland’s Century CR6 as a last-minute replacement for co-driver Yannick Demay. Despite not having a common language, Antoine and David made it through to the finish line, only to discover that they were officially DNF. Tomas and David certainly won’t have any communication issues as they look to enjoy a successful start to their five-year partnership with Toyota Gazoo Racing Czech.


T.O.: “We did our last Dakar in 2021 and then we missed 2022. And in 2023 I was working as a journalist and watching the rally from a different angle for the first time. I learned a lot! We've been preparing the project with Toyota for the last two years. Toyota was always my focus, because I remember back in 2020, all the Toyotas were overtaking me and I was thinking, ‘What’s wrong? Do I have a flat tyre?’, but they were just much faster. So we managed to bring this project to life. We’re starting in the T1+ category, which is amazing. We hope that we will gain experience and that the car will be very reliable, as Toyotas usually are. We’ll try to gradually improve to prepare ourselves for next season, when we should also be doing some W2RC races and World Cup Bajas. And then for Dakar 2025 we should have the turbo engine. I feel like this will be my first Dakar! I have seven finisher’s medals and this is my ninth start, but I feel like a rookie. We haven’t done too many kilometres. I went to Baja Aragon and got a decent result for a first outing, 16th against some tough competition. We’ve never driven the car in the dunes, though, so we’ll have to practise a little bit."

D.K.: “I only went to Dakar 2023 as a photographer for the Overdrive team, and to provide a bit of support. Just before the prologue, someone from South Racing called me and said, ‘Do you have your licence?’ Because one of their co-drivers had a problem with his licence, he was supposed to be racing with Antoine. I told them I had my licence and would be happy to help, but that I didn't speak French. ‘Ah, we need somebody with French’, they told me. ‘Antoine doesn’t speak very good English, we’ll find another solution’. Then maybe 10 minutes later they called me again. ‘Antoine says to come now because there’s no time to find anybody else, he has to start in 30 minutes. Put your gear on and come to scrutineering’. Antoine’s co-driver gave me a suit and helmet, we rushed to scrutineering and got the green light from the commissaires, and before you knew it, we were on the prologue! I didn’t know if I was doing the real Dakar or playing on the PlayStation! In the end I said, ‘Give me some good words in French, and we’ll figure it out’. So that was it. ‘Gauche, droite’. Amazing. We made it through but on the last stage, after maybe 20 kilometres, we had a lot of problems. We lost the wheel, the dampers, the upper arms. We had to make a lot of repairs and lost about two hours. We also lost more time on the liaison due to clutch issues. We went straight to the podium and David Castera gave us our medals, but officially we were DNF. So I don’t know. If you have a crash or a problem but you can fix it during the night, you keep going and you deserve to finish. To me, the Dakar spirit is not about finishing fast every day, it’s about the story on the stages.”

Véhicule

TOYOTA GAZOO RACING CZECH

TOYOTA HILUX GR OVERDRIVE
TOYOTA GAZOO RACING CZECH

  • TOYOTA
  • HILUX GR OVERDRIVE
  • Toyota Gazoo Racing Czech
  • Toyota Gazoo Racing Czech
  • T1+ : Voitures Tout-terrain Prototypes 4x4

Classement 2024

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