The first Myanmar stage starts

Yesterday, participants who ran on the Asian Highway No. 1 where the trace of the flood was severe, saw the heavy rain that continued until the night, and some participants predicted that the competition on the fifth day will be canceled after the fourth day. However, the organizer's strongly decided to proceed SS regardless of the situation, and the participants left the hotel at the scheduled time in the morning. That said, the 93km road section until the SS started was hit by intense squalls that were deprived of visibility, and the end of the war was a start.

On this day's SS, the first 23km to PC (passenger control) is paved, and the second half 56km is off-road. The paved road was not wide, but there were few bumps on the road surface, and there was little impact from rainfall except that the road surface was wet.

The following off-road section was mostly red soil, but there were also white sand, mud, some rocks, etc., and on the slope of red soil, the road surface condition worsened as the number of passing cars increased, eventually It is said that it has become a fighting scene where stack cars continue.

MOTO class

When we asked the players who passed the course, "The route is basically a highway that connects the village to the village, and the villagers who gathered watched me warmly." “I felt like everyone was cheering for me, smiling and waving hands, giving me sweets,” players said. However, it seems that “Myanmar people were not used to watching rally games and unexpectedly crossing roads and jump out, so we ran with considerable caution”. Nonetheless, police officers stood along the roadside, and residents were careful not to move carelessly.

The tarmac (paved road) in the first half of the SS had few oncoming vehicles, and it was said that “top view was almost unnecessary on the main road” which they were able to run comfortably at a high pace. Some people said, “I was really lost as I do not know where to turn”. Whether participants could run smoothly at this part seemed to have a considerable impact on the overall time.

In the following off-road area, there was no problem in general although there were several people stuck in the red soil climbing road surface in a “slow state”. It seems that there were many riders who fell out of balance on the sliding roads due to hidden huge puddles.

Meanwhile, the # 3 Jakkrit CHAWTALE player KTM 450 EXC-F recorded the top time at a steady speed in both the first and second half of the SS. On the 3rd day, he continued to win the daily top, and the difference with the followers has widened.

The following # 6 Tadao Ezure (FB International) Yamaha YZ450FX had a miserable course in the first half of the SS. Jakkrit left the other participants behind, securing the overall 2nd place, but the time difference was too challenging to achieve reversal in the short final SS.

After the SS goal, it was a 330km long-distance liaison, but because the highway does not allow motorcycles to run, all the two-wheeled machines were transported to the capital Naypyidaw.

By the fifth day, the riders did not encounter serious accidents or injuries, but as far as we were able to confirm, there were several forwards and falls. There is one rider who has recovered after submergence completed the goal by himself.

SIDECAR class

AUTO class

TRD Hilux won the daily top again this day with # 111 Jaras JAENKAMOLKULCHAI / Chupong CHAIWAN pair. With no mistakes, the pair overtake the champion Nattaphon for nearly a minute and recorded an explosion time of less than 1 hour. The # 120 Suwat LIMJIRAPINYA / Prakai NAMJAITHAHAN pair (Isuzu Suphan Sport) Isuzu D-MAX, which was ranked 2nd overall, reduce the gap with the first to nearly four and a half minutes, and the time difference was shortened to six minutes.

According to the latest SS results, the # 105 Mana PORNSIRICHERD / Kittisak KLINCHAN team of the same TOYOTA CROSS COUNTRY TEAM THAILAND team is garnering the daily top. TRD team is striving hard among competitors each day showing stable speed after mid race. The only disappointing thing was that # 105, which was a 2 minutes difference overall in the second place, lost time due to computer troubles caused by the large amount of water in the water splash area. The overall 3rd and 4th positions of the team remain the same, but the difference from the 2nd place is wide open.

On that day, one of the topics was that the two machines battle in the middle had recorded the top time. They were # 121 Chayapon YOTHA / Banphot AMPORNMAHA (Morseng Racing Team) Isuzu D-MAX and # 119 Songyos THIENTHONG / Somkiat NOYCHAT (Sa-Kaeo King Off Road) Toyota Hilux VIGO. Both were Thailand teams, but it was impressive that they were running lively regardless their first Myanmar route.

On the other hand, Toyota Fortuner of # 112 Takuma Aoki / Itthiphon SIMARAKS / Katsuhiko Shiine (FORTUNER GEOLANDAR takuma-gp) dropped out of the top group. Aoki's machine had a trouble that the snorkel connection part was disconnected due to water pressure when entering the short crossing area of caution 1, the turbine that sucked in water was damaged and the power was taken away. He spent a lot of time because he was unable to pass the hill because of the misfortune of reaching that area.

As a result, TEAM JAOS's # 109 Tomonori Noto / Kazuhiro Tanaka, Toyota Hilux in the team went up to 7th overall, and took the 6th place with T1G class victory.

According to JAOS's Tomonori Noto, the red hill climb area in the red soil was a story that “when we passed, we were still in a situation where we could climb somehow.” It became a point that big time gap difference may be caused. There were scenes where several cars stacked up and blocked the course, and a winch had to be carried out. The FJ cruiser from # 110 Norihiro Yamamoto / Takashi Tsujimoto / Kazuhisa Nishikawa (AKINDO-GO) played an active part in the rescue.