Press Release

OSAKA, JAPAN - January 8, 2009 - TOYO TIRE & RUBBER Co., LTD. (President and CEO: Kenji Nakakura) hereby announces that it is providing off-road tire supports for 2 teams entered in the Argentina Chile-Dakar (better known as Dakar rally 2009), which is being held between Saturday, January 3 and Sunday, January 18.

TOYO TIRES is supporting:

Team Dakar USA (Driver : Robby Gordon)
Team Dakar USA (Driver : Eric Vigouroux)

Both teams have been supplied with off-road tires, OPEN COUNTRY M/T-R tuned for the Dakar rally.

Gordon's team won the 2006 Baja 1000 equipped with Toyo Open Country M/T-R tires. The team was also successful in Dakar 2007 and the Central Europe Rally.
The team of Eric Vigouroux was first introduced to the Open Country M/T-R tire during Dakar in 2006 when Gordon was forced to drop out of the event due to a badly damaged radiator. Gordon provided his unused Open Country M/T tires to Vigouroux for the remainder of the race. Vigouroux was impressed with the performance of the tires and soon after he joined Team Toyo as a sponsored driver in Europe.

The Dakar rally starts in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The race will cross over through Chile, then back to Buenos Aires for the finish. The rally is a grand loop and comprises 15 special stages over a total distance of 9,574 km (including 5,652km of special stages).

Presently, the 5th stage has finished and the total distance traveled so far is 3,515 km. Gordon's team has risen gradually from the 1st stage, and is currently in 3rd place of stage 3. The team has a strong showing and is in 7th overall.

The team of Eric Vigouroux suffered damage in the stage 3, but continues to show a great effort in the race.