An early battle where the top team hits the time

The Asia Cross Country Rally is held every year in the middle of the rainy season in the Southeast Asian region, but this year, there was squall every day, and rainwater continues to soak into the ground. There are years of high-speed races where the dry road surface lasts, but this year there are wet sections, and the road surface is in a good balance between hard and soft.

However, in places where there was a lot of rain, it was also a problem that the road surface was so rough that vehicles could not run. The SS on the second day of the competition was being canceled for about 50km of the first half, as a result of the test run in previous day by the organizer. Still, the SS remains nearly 180km and the total mileage including the liaison is nearly 600km. This was the longest travel distance of the tournament.

The plantation is mainly in SS. On the other hand, there are some high-speed sections, others are muddy, there are rocks, rough roads with holes, very narrow roads, etc. There are many caution marks in the route book indicating this technical course.

MOTO class

The SS review of the day said that the road surface was diverse with sand, rocks, red soil, and white hard sand covering the road surface. And there are many opinions that “the end of the SS was fun at high speed”. However, there was a hard rock section in the second half of the SS, and there seemed to be some entrants experiencing partially torn tires. It was said that no matter how they ran carefully clearing the first-aid measures, but the road condition led to damage the rim and disc. In addition, there was a participant who rushed to the goal without repairing, ending with rear tire burst in the final game.

The route is "There was a miss course, but it was not too difficult." However, people met with a squall that could block their sight in the return liaison, as if a baptismal ceremony of the Asian cross-country rally. Nevertheless, no riders left the line due to serious machine troubles or injuries so far, and the race ended relatively smooth on the second day.

Meanwhile, it was # 6 Tadao Ezure (FB International) Yamaha YZ450FX who reached with the top time. The goaI time was different by 7 minutes compared to the 2nd place. Second place was # 3 Jakkrit CHAWTALE player KTM 450 EXC-F, same as yesterday. Third place was # 2 Koun Phan DARA (Dara Motorcycle TOP 1 Oil) KTM 450EXL.

# 21 David ROPER, who was the 4th, followed by # 9 Kyle ROBERTSON, who was 5th at yesterday, and # 1 Yoshio Ikemachi, who was at 6th. Yesterday's top group kept their upper rank in the same order.

AUTO class

On the first day, the defensive champion # 101, Natthaphon ANGRITTHANON / Peerapong SOMBUTWONG (The Land Transport Association of Thailand-Isuzu), Isuzu D-MAX, recorded the fastest time of the day. With an overwhelming large difference of 13 minutes to 2nd place, with a close difference of 20 minutes to 2nd place in the overall time, the position of the 1st place was solid on the second day.

The second place is same as previous day, # 120 Suwat LIMJIRAPINYA / Prakai NAMJAITHAHAN (Isuzu Suphan Sport), Isuzu D-MAX. They maintain stable speed and a swift summary, ready to catch up awaiting Natthaphon's mistakes in the middle of the race.

Toyota's Hilux from the # 105 Mana PORNSIRICHERD / Kittisak KLINCHAN team from TOYOTA CROSS COUNTRY TEAM THAILAND, who was 4th at yesterday, entered the 3rd place and continued to climb up the rank pressuring the top players, but the # 111 Jaras JAENKAMOLKULCHAI / Chupong CHAIWAN group dropped slightly to 8th place.

Another goal from 5th place yesterday was # 112 Takuma Aoki / Itthiphon SIMARAKS / Katsuhiko Shiine (FORTUNER GEOLANDAR takuma-gp) Toyota Fortuner. “I caught up with D-MAX of No. 120 in the second half 25km, but the dust was overwhelming that I couldn't pull it out, but if I was running with clear visibility, I could have shortened my time (laughs),” he said.

Behind that is TEAM JAOS's # 109 Tomonori Noto / Kazuhiro Tanaka, who said, “I pushed and ran more than yesterday”. Although it is an over-fenderless slender machine that does not change the commercial Hilux and suspension strokes, aiming to win the T1G (gasoline) class at a reasonable speed.

The 6th place is Isuzu D-MAX of # 121 Chayapon YOTHA / Banphot AMPORNMAHA (Morseng Racing Team).

Adventure Challenge class

In this tournament, there is “Adventure / Challenge Class”, where you can enjoy the competitors' route as offloading regardless of the competition. Three machines, including the Korean team, are participating here. We would like to introduce one of them, the Indian classic car Hindustan AMBASSADOR, # 65 Masahiro Yokota / Atsuko Oki group.

In fact, the driver Masahiro Yokota is the director of the “Ikaho Toy and Doll Car Museum” in Gunma Prefecture. About one year ago on Facebook, he saw the sidecar Ural running in the rally and contacted the organizer with interest. Although it is deceived that only on-road vehicles will step on the off-road, the organizer also said, `` Even if it is a 4WD vehicle for off-road, it will accompany this rally as a tour, the border of Asia I was thinking of creating a class that would allow anyone to share the joy of going beyond that, and two answers made it possible to participate in the rally. ”

And Yokota, who had been running the service route for the past two days, commented on his experiences as follows.

“No, it was really fun (laughs). Especially when I went to the suburbs of Thailand, there was no signal, so I was able to enjoy driving. What impressed me the most was that the participants were all humanly powerful, and I felt rejuvenated. I specially salute the motorcycles and sidecars. I couldn’t believe it. I enjoyed it so much. "

The adventure class will continue to be held next year. Please contact us if you are interested!