Shoulder break-in course on difficulty level B !?
But watch out for squall!

This year, there will be 3 legs in the Thailand area and 3 legs in the Myanmar area. The Thailand section of the first 3 days is set with a longer SS distance (Special Stage: Time measured section), and the team that was able to earn sufficient advantage here will benefit when proceeding the second half of the race.

Meanwhile, long-distance battles with SS of 207.23km, liaison of 294.78km, and total mileage of 502km was set for the first day of the competition. Most of the courses consist of plantations, mini jungles, and village sections. There are relatively more junctions, and it is a high-speed battle for dry conditions.

The road surface is hard and rough, and there are several river crossings, but no stack is expected. On the way, there is one PC (passenger control) stop at the point of 100km, and that is a stop of timing section. In the second half of the game, simple maintenance and refueling are performed in a nearby service area, and the goal is reached through a 130km SS.

MOTO class

Let's start the introduction with the impressions of participating players. "Today, if ranked it in ABC, the course difficulty of the Asia Cross Country Rally is ranked as B. There are some easy to get lost sections even with navigation but there are no difficult traps. The road surface is expected to be hard and muddy. However, there was past experiences of being hit by squalls for almost five times during the day, which caused a mis course.” The general opinion was “nothing happened ” and “in general and probably shouldering course on the first day”. “Difficult session may start from the next day” was being expressed.

In the meantime, the fastest run to the top was Husqvarna's # 21 Scottish David ROPER. 2nd place is last year's champion #3 Jakkrit CHAWTALE (Thailand) followed by 20 seconds, and 3rd place Willem VERMEULEN (Netherlands) with a difference of 26 seconds.

SIDECAR class

The # 66 Masato Watanabe / Masahiro Ozeki group and the # 67 Tetsuo Iwamoto / Supaka Enomoto team from the Japan Racing Sidecar Association formally participated. Their unique machine shape attracts the crowd’s attention this year as usual.

Among them, # 66 Masato Watanabe / Masahiro Ozeki's sidecars are different from Russian-made Urals which they used until last year and are specially built for racing. They even did not prepare passenger (passenger side) seat, which is interesting as it is to be impressed by the appearance of the passenger's players moving their body positions while catching in the bar and cornering with the active load movement. For more information on sidecar competitions, please refer to the following site.

Japan Racing Sidecar Association web site
http://jrsa-sidecar.com

However, the # 66 Masato Watanabe / Masahiro Ozeki group’s machine is for motocross competitions, not for long-distance rally competitions. “Perhaps the first in the world” may be expressed for this rally competition, and surprisingly completed the same SS distance ran by the two wheels and four wheels. However, the drivers and passengers said that “the tiredness in the whole body was greater than I had imagined”, so we hope for the best till the final day that they may complete the race reasonably.

AUTO class

In the last six years of Automobiles, # 101 Natthaphon ANGRITTHANON / Peerapong SOMBUTWONG team (The Land Transport Association of Thailand-Isuzu), using Isuzu D-MAX, achieved six consecutive wins, and is being listed as this year's top candidate. The driver Natthaphon is good at developing a runaway model. Even during the sixth consecutive victory, he used the same racing method on the first day and then completed the race without fail to maintain the top rank of the accumulated time. His racing method of Leg 1 attracts a lot of attention this year.

Then, it turned out that they remained at the top position. Second place # 120 Suwat LIMJIRAPINYA / Prakai NAMJAITHAHAN (Isuzu Suphan Sport) Isuzu D-MAX showed their racing method of “other planet” with a difference of 7 minutes, and a fixed position was being achieved from the first day of the rally.

The third place is Toyota Hilux, the # 111 Jaras JAENKAMOLKULCHAI / Chupong CHAIWAN team, with the top of Toyota ’s defeating Isuzu and defeating Natthaphon. Although it was a 10 minutes difference from the top, the distance may be caught by a tire change, therefore no one can keep an eye out of what will happen next.

Fourth place is Toyota Hilux of # 105 Mana PORNSIRICHERD / Kittisak KLINCHAN from TOYOTA CROSS COUNTRY TEAM THAILAND. Both equipped with eye catching color rings that red, black and white base colors marked with a large “TRD”, which is called “TRD Hilux” by competitors.

This TRD's Hilux team is in the race for the 4th year, aiming the first victory this year, and actively participating in Thailand's domestic cross-country championship series. The track record has been left undoubtedly, and “Isuzu D-MAX” led by the defending champion and the violent sparks created is the same as last year.

Indeed, the battle that can be said to be a proxy war of the share battle that the two big heads representing Asian pickup makers such as Toyota and Isuzu are developing worldwide is also being reduced in size in this Asian cross-country rally. It is.

The fifth place was # 112 Takuma Aoki / Itthiphon SIMARAKS / Katsuhiko Shiine (FORTUNER GEOLANDAR takuma-gp). Takuma Aoki is unable to operate the pedals due to the inconvenience of the lower body, and he participates with Toyota Fortuner which operation system was modified to be operated with only two hands. He has many fans here in Asia supporting him. Although he did not participate in last year’s Asian cross-country rally, he returned in order to achieve his long-awaited first victory. “On the first day, I ran indulgently as a rehabilitation run for the first time in two years”, he expressed. We would like to keep an eye on future rankings.