Monday, August 12, Surat Thani

An unexpectedly difficult stage with a series of missed courses!
TOYOTA GAZOO RACING THAILAND's Mana comes out on top in the four-wheel race!

Trouble for several teams at the beginning of the race.

For a while after the start, the terrain changed elevation, climbing up and down small hills and the track surface was dry, hard and uneven, The narrow track width made it difficult to go fast. Yuichi IIJIMA, who is competing in a 300 series Land Cruiser, commented that there were places where he had to scrape both sides of the car to get through.

Here, several cars, including the Toyota Fortuner of Tubagus Adhi MOERINSYAHDI (Indonesia) and Jatuporn BURAKITPACHA (Thailand) in the #102 TOYOTA GAZOO RACING INDONESIA, which finished 2nd overall last year, had car problems resulting in lost time.

The Suzuki Jimny of #136 Roslyn SHEN (Taiwan) and Nada SIMARAKS (Thailand) got stuck in the mud just after they took a wrong turn. When they tried to use the winch, they could not find the remote control cable and had to use a wire to short-circuit the remote control terminal to escape. They also lost drive to the front wheels from this point on.

The Suzuki Escudo of #125 Team BANDIT Thailand's Bandit PANTHITA (Thailand) and Phairote PONGSAPAN (Thailand) went off course and fell into a lake. They went in so deep that not only the floor but also the cargo area was flooded with water. They were able to escape with a winch and after finishing the stage, the driver said: 'Everything is OK! No trouble!" He was quite cheerful and he is fully enjoying his extreme adventure.

Mario Renato Karel of #37 Wheel Story, who started from the very back of the pack surged ahead of the field!

Mario Renato Karel IROTH (INDONESIA) of #37 Wheel Story took the top spot in the 2-wheeled category, starting from the very back of the grid. Following in second and third place were #1 Yasubumi SUNAKAWA and Norihisa MATSUMOTO from Team OTOKONAKI of Japan.

Almost all the entrants, including the top group, were plagued by course errors in today's motorbike race. While the top 10 four-wheelers finished within 1.5 hours of each other, the top two-wheelers finished in 2.5 hours, a gap of one hour.

Unlike the four-wheeled vehicles, motorcyclists are also their own navigators and need to check the map while riding. Today's SS was more challenging than expected, and it was evident that it was difficult to recover from a wrong course.

Here, Daiki GOTO of #17 Team Super Cub JAPAN Yotsuba motorcycle defied most expectations and jumped up to 5th place despite starting from 15th position.

GOTO, a former service staff of Garage Monchi & Yanagawa Iron works JAPIND, brought his Honda Super Cub to this rally. He drove his Super Cub, which is popular in Japan for delivering ramen noodles and mail, to an unbelievable achievement, beating out a field of motocross motorcycles.

Goto said, "When I competed for the first time, I didn't expect the SS to be so difficult. The course setting is something that would be impossible in Japan. The road surface was sometimes smooth, sometimes bumpy, and sometimes made up of hard red clay. There were strong reflections from the sun and even at the speed of a Cub, it was very difficult to see the correct path to travel.
However, there was a straight dirt road for about 10 km, and although the maximum speed was only 80 km/h or so, it was super comfortable. However, tomorrow's Leg is the longest in this year's event at 431 km and it is expected to be quite difficult for the Cub. The sluggish and slow speed will make it difficult to finish the stage in time.”

Mana Moves to the Top of the Class, Aims for Longed-For First Win!

In the 4-wheel category, TOYOTA GAZOO RACING THAILAND's #105 Mana PORNSIRICHERD (Thailand) and Kittisak KLINCHAN (Thailand) in the Toyota Hilux Revo came out on top. The pair of Mana PORNSIRICHERD and Kittisak KLINCHAN (Thailand) took the top position with a speed of 1 hour and 26 minutes, despite being troubled by the challenging course that was difficult to navigate.

In second place was the Isuzu SUPHAN EXPLORER LIQUI MOLY RALLY TEAM's #106 Thongchai KLINKATE (Thailand) and Banpoth AMPORNMAHA (Thailand) in the Isuzu D-MAX. The D-MAX, which is smaller and lighter than the Hilux, moved like a fish in water on the narrow course, finishing 2 minutes behind the leader.

In third place was the Mitsubishi Triton of Team MITSUBISHI RALLIART #103 Chayapon YOTHA (Thailand) and Peerapong SOMBUTWONG (Thailand), the champion from 2022.

Chayapon was one of the Mitsubishi RALLIART teams that were in serious mode this year to win the championship and was cheerful and relaxed at the ceremonial start. He showed solid results at the critical moment and was only 3 minutes behind the leader.

Team MITSUBISHI RALLIART's Triton was also in 5th place, with the #130 Sakchai HANTRAKUL (Thailand)/Jumpon DOUNGTHIP (Thailand) team 6 minutes behind the leader.

In 4th place was the #115 team of Ikuo HANAWA (JPN) and Hirokazu SOMEMIYA (JPN), who were among the TOYOTA GAZOO RACING INDONESIA team that finished 1st and 2nd overall in 2023. They had to retire due to vehicle problems, a frustrating experience for them. I got lost a little too much where everyone else was making mistakes, but the car is in great shape, and it's still going strong!

The first day was a rather difficult course, and it was more of a "navigation course." At the end of the day, the top four AUTO cars were the Toyota Hilux, Isuzu D-MAX, Mitsubishi Triton, and Toyota Fortuner. The results were consistent with the teams and vehicles that were expected to be likely to win the race. The four-wheelers did not seem to have as much chaos and confusion on the stage as the two-wheelers.

Tomorrow, the teams will leave their hotels earlier than usual and head to Cha-am, a city in central Thailand. The distance to be covered is 553 km, the longest of this year's event. Although the 121-km race section has been shortened due to the cancellation of the second half of the race after the PC stop.

Regardless they day will include long travel distances and the slightest issues could be disastrous. It is going to be a very tough day not only for the competitors but also for the service staff. Please look forward to the next report!

(Photo: Manabu TAKAHASHI, Text: Dai KAWAMURA)