Tweet

Today was not a long stage. Jun arrived bivouac at 2:00PM.

Dakar competitors will have their assigned meals. But he do not eat yet today. And then, He ate instant noodles for lunch.

Jun arrived early so he relaxed at hotel today.

Well, Jun will go to the Andes tomorrow. His passport is in Chile now. Jun has got a special passport stamp for Dakar competitors, with the Dakar logo on it.

Tweet

Tweet

Stage 3

Today’s stage was the opposite direction of the same course in 2011. It was dry riverbed with much stones, the course continues to smooth road at 1000m high. There were feshifeshi ground in the last half of the course and the road surface was different to the first half. Jun could run at high speed but the road surface undulated and his car bounced off sometime.

Jun set the air pressure of tires higher and the team mate Akira Miura / Nicolas Gibon set lower. When Jun tried to catch up and pass them, the buggy and other fast group that at low rank yesterday by trouble came from behind at that time. Jun escaped to the road side and let them pass. After that, Jun started again but he lost the team mate at all. He continued to chase the team mate with thinking the dust he saw far away must be them.

Jun’s health became better than yesterday with a help from the medicine that from the medical. However Alain the navigator said his driving was mess in the last of half. Jun stopped the car to evacuated the air of tires when he into feshifeshi ground. Many cars passed him but the low air pressure of tires made his car speed up and caught up the group that passed him. Fighting with the dust started again and he could not overtake them. He wondered later, if he kept running without stop he could came through feshifeshi ground too….

Jun finished today’s stage safely but the team mate was not there and regretted time loss. Jun’s team mate made miss course and the radiator of their car broken just after and took a time to fix it. They crossed the finish line after 2 hours Jun. Alain got a bad mood for too much gap. Jun lost the team mate after they missed the course, he did not aware that and took a lead till the end. Jun’s health was not perfect yet but he finished the race as 1st at the category.

Dakar Rally 2015 Stage 3 Result:
Liaison:258km
SS:284km
Total:542km
T2 Autos Result:1st
Overall standings:32nd

Tweet

Tweet

Stage 2

The First half of the stage 2 was high speed mountain roads. There were 2 slow cars in front of Jun and he could not pass 2 cars at one time, he had to take a time to overtake them. Jun found TLC Car No.2 stopped at road side and he made a stop to check out. The driver said the front differential’s heat was out of the common. It was too much high actually but if so, differential must be broken. They agreed the heat gauge did not work and Jun backed to the road. After that, the front differential of Jun’s car was heated too but the cause was unknown.

While Jun missed the course and the team mate took a lead then he tired to follow but Jun could not keep the concentration by owing to bad health. Feshifeshi(a sand like a powder) ground continued and his car stuck with the sand besides fell into big hole like a mortar by reduced ability to think. During going on the jaggy road of hill zone, his car’s shock-absorbing is too short to run fast….. Jun thought he was late 30 minute from the team mate and Alan the navigator thought 10-15 minute late but they crossed the finish line only 3 minute late.

Alan whipped Jun like you’re slow usually but today he understood Jun’s health and said nothing. Jun thought bad health was heat attack but the cold was relapsing that he caught it in the year end. He could not stop coughing and too hard to report about the race on the phone. So we closed the phone quickly.

Dakar Rally 2015 Stage 2 Result:
Liaison:107km
SS:518km
Total:625km
T2 Autos Result:2nd
Overall standings:33th

Tweet

Tweet

Together with Cyril Despres.

Tweet