In just the second stage of the 2026 Dakar Rally, LJS Racing’s KZJ90 diesel Toyota Land Cruiser fell apart on the race course in a pretty major way. A critical suspension joint failed, dropping a link into the sand like an anchor. But the heroic racers managed to fix it in the dunes, with cargo straps, and the camera ‘copter got some epic footage of the thing clawing its way to the end of the stage.
This vehicle, Number 777, is a 4.2-liter turbodiesel Land Cruiser. It’s racing in the Dakar Classics category, with two Spanish guys, Lorenzo Fluxa and Sergi Fernandez, listed as the competitors wheeling it. Fluxa is briefly interviewed in the clip below, saying he wasn’t sure how the car broke. But despite an obviously rough Stage 2, the guys got the vehicle back in the battle, and it’s still in contention as of this writing (10 competitive stages completed, three to go).
This kind of roadside repair is not uncommon in off-road and rally racing, but it’s always fun when we actually get to see footage of it. Anybody can point a car toward the horizon and hit the gas—being brave and creative enough to replace a trailing arm bushing with cargo straps to escape the Saudi desert is on another level.
Looks like they just lost a trailing arm bushing, which is a pretty big deal since that does a lot of work locating the rear axle. Resorting to holding that rear suspension arm up by some ratchet straps, connected to, I guess, the roll cage, is pretty wild to think about.
This video below should start at the right spot, but if it doesn’t, the relevant timestamp is 45:55.
Dakar 2026 – Stage 2 – The film of the day
The main sponsor you can see on the car, Serra de Tramuntana, is a nature park in Mallorca, in case you were wondering. Here’s some backstory on Fluxa, from the interview he gave before the race (translated from Spanish):
“Last year, we were fifth in the middle of the rally, but we had a mechanical problem, which has been our great burden these first three years. Now, we do the preparation in house, and the idea is to be able to finish this Dakar without problems with this prototype that Jacky Ickx drove in his day with his daughter. It is true that in the Classic there is more and more preparation and level, but with Sergi, who is a great co-driver, and I am very lucky to be able to race with him, we can do very well.”
“Someday I said I would do it with my daughter Lisabel, and that is still the goal. But it has changed me for university (laughs). She is a very good sailor, and I think we will do great when everything fits together. Last year I had a very serious health problem. A vein burst inside my spinal cord cavity, and within an hour, I became quadriplegic. I had surgery after three hours, but I still have some sequelae. Now I feel stronger than in the Dakar 2025, and I think I will get to this edition better. I have managed to overcome all the forces that were against me to return to the Dakar, but I have had to greatly reduce my number of rallies this year so as not to punish myself so much. I will be happy on January 17th if we are in the top three. The feasible goal is to be between 5th and 10th, but we dream of the podium.”
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Check out Inside the Dakar Rally: Field Notes From the World’s Most Extreme Off-Road Race to understand how this wild race works.
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