Delightful finale in the capital Naypyidaw!

Six days passed very quickly. The 24th year of the Sun Chlorella Asia Cross-Country Rally has gained another great opportunity, gaining the adventure of "Myanmar", which has revived in 19 years since the millennium year.

Four teams from Myanmar participated in the rally with the cooperation of the Myanmar Tourism Authority and received great support from both the roadside and the podium.

A rally is something that “gathers again”. Both the host and the participants will always return to the competition. In that sense, this Myanmar hosting should have been a big harvest for the future of the cross-country rally in Asia.

Starting from Thailand's 2,300km rally at the beach resort in Pattaya to the capital of Myanmar, Naypyidaw, crossing the border by land, overcoming several challenges such as crossing borders with 500 convoys, canceling SS due to natural disasters, etc. and finally the final LEG morning has arrived.

The last SS is a short stage of about 50km that runs south of the capital to the southeast. Although there are some high-speed sections, the second half is full of rock. There is a section in the middle where only people with high off-road skills can escape, and it was reported that there was a shortcut at the briefing that was postponed until the morning.

MOTO class

The athletes who finished the run expressed that, in the beginning, “The gallery bell rings before the start of the SS. “The first half was straight, and the second half was rocky. The stones were bigger than the head, but it was a course that could be run well for beginner level.”

Also, they were puzzled by too many audiences, “There was a muddy road in the village just before the finish, all the villagers gathered, and it was a great cheer, but we are at a dilemma. We understand the crowd are expecting amazing actions to take place, but we want to go through the easy route, however the cheering is prominent, and we don't want to fall in the mud ... (laughs).

There were a lot of voices saying that in this year's competition, “The environment changes every day, and the situation and the road surface change, so it was really an Asian cross-country rally.”

Meanwhile, # 26 Yuichi Nishimori (DIRTSPORTS RT with Team JAPAN) Yamaha WR250F recorded daily top time. From the 2nd to 4th place, # 21 David ROPER (Scotland) from the SAVAGES Top 1 oil Race team, Willem VERMEULEN (Netherlands) from # 16, and Kyle ROBERTSON (Wales) from # 9. They have been competing from Cambodia, but this year they were fast as if typhoon eyes.

The next fifth place is # 1 Yoshio Ikemachi (FB International). 6th place is # 2 Koun Phan DARA (Dara Motorcycle TOP 1 Oil).

Based on this result, ♯3 Jakkrit CHAWTALE (Thailand) KTM 450 EXC-F won the overall victory. Two years ago, Ikemachi played a fierce battle, and the winner returned to the champion again.

The overall 2nd place was # 6 Tadao Ezure (FB International) Yamaha YZ450FX. Although the time difference with Jakkrit who was running ahead in the final SS was considerably shortened, he did not achieve the first victory which he was longing for. The following third place was # 1 Yoshio Ikemachi. This year, Ikemachi surprisingly had many missed courses in the first half of the race, so he was not able to make it due to the overwhelming time difference. Even so, with the influence of an injured left-handed thumb, no matter how unconsciously it will probably leave him in third place.

SIDECAR class

# 66 Masato Watanabe / Masahiro Ozeki, who participated in the Japan Racing Sidecar Association, retired on the Thailand stage. From the first day to the last day, they run through all the competition sections.

Until last year, they did not set the goal of SS as their goal, but after running to a certain extent, they escaped from the course and enjoyed finishing with a penalty, but Iwamoto said that “You can complete the race by running SS slowly.'' As his word suggests, this year, he impressively did not fly and rush but persisted to the goal. Then, when it was over, it was completed in a time that was close to the results of the motorcycle players, and we were impressed by the high performance of the two-wheel drive machine and the guts of the Iwamoto / Tomimoto group.

AUTO class

On the day of the SS, the TRD team, that is, the Toyota CROSS COUNTRY TEAM THAILAND team machine made a one-two finish. The # 105 Mana PORNSIRICHERD / Kittisak KLINCHAN pair is 32 minutes 01 seconds, and the # 111 Jaras JAENKAMOLKULCHAI / Chupong CHAIWAN pair is 32 minutes 24 seconds.

On the other hand, champion Natthaphon is third in 34 minutes 09 seconds. Although the champions showed the overwhelming speed in the early game, the number of TRDs increased faster than LEG3, with Natthaphon being in the defense.

The next fourth place was Toyota Hilux from # 109 TEAM JAOS Tomonori Noto / Kazuhiro Tanaka. Last year, as with the TRD machine, the team challenged with a fully remodeled machine with a wider tread and front arm length, but this year "return to origin" was their advocate. They challenged the user's perspective with suspension tuning that fits in the genuine body width. As a result, it was proved that the position following the manufacturer works could be kept constant, and the result as an after-part manufacturer was greatly improved.

Based on this result, the # 101 Natthaphon ANGRITTHANON / Peerapong SOMBUTWONG team (The Land Transport Association of Thailand-Isuzu) Isuzu D-MAX won the shining championship. The team’s consecutive championship record was extended to “7 years”, further strengthening its strength and stability.

The # 120 Suwat LIMJIRAPINYA / Prakai NAMJAITHAHAN (Isuzu Suphan Sport) Isuzu D-MAX group entered the second place, and the # 105 and # 111 TRDs took the third and fourth place.

In addition, while the competing machines were fighting hard in the SS, the Myanmar people gathered along the road showed their true smile faces. Every time a machine passes by, they make a loud cheer, and showed their acclamation when a flashy action is seen. If the motorcycle falls into the mud, the crowd will run up and rescue the motorcycle from the mud. People in the village, which was rapidly modernized, enjoying rally watching was a smiling sight that had not been seen for a long time in Thailand.

Meanwhile, the group after the middle stage stumbled on the road surface and were in extremely worse situation compared to the vehicles passed by. The stuck vehicles helped each other without worrying the finishing time. Retaining the tradition of the old Asia Cross Country Rally, many machines were able to reach the goal with smiles.

And the finishing ceremony begun. The two-wheel new Champion Jakkrit appeared on a podium set up in a vantage point behind the huge pagoda in the capital Naypyidaw, with a big applause from the crowd.

After that, participants were being introduced one after another on the podium. For the four wheels, the staffs supported the team climbed up together on the platform, and they were in a commemorative photo that is valuable for a lifetime surrounded by huge group of mass media.

Prize-Giving & Gala Dinner

The rally then went back to the Grand Amara Hotel, took a shower and headed to the Myanmar International Convention Center (MICC2) where the award party was held. The sign “Sun Chlorella ASIA CROSS COUNTRY RALLY 2019” was placed at the entrance of a huge facility that is more than twice the ground area of Tokyo Dome may be 30 meters wide. The banquet hall accommodates 500 participants with more than 50 round tables, and nearly 70 Myanmar government officials were being invited.

Mr. U Hlaing Oo (Deputy Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Hotels and Tourism of Myanmar), greeted us before the award ceremony. After that, Mr. Futoshi Nakayama, President and CEO of Sun Chlorella Corporation, gave a powerful message to players and staff of “let's meet again!”.

表彰式

And when the image of the rally appeared on the award ceremony, in the ending it was introduced next year in 2020, that the race will be held in Malaysia. Audience applauded merrily. Malaysia is also a country that is familiar in the history of the 24th Asian Cross-Country Rally, but this is the first time since 2003 to be set as the place of goal. We really looking forward to the route that will be set next year and expecting who or which team will be active.

This concludes the 24th Sun Chlorella Asia Cross Country Rally 2019. Next year, I will be actively involved again in this rally!