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Welcome to the Dakar Rally 2012 special newssection. To read an article just click on the specific headline below. All articles are visible for several years and under special subdomain [ COPY & CLICK HERE ] or use the SEARCH. |
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 | SA-Dakar Rally: Mitsuhashi again T2-class leader - All Top 10 are Toyota.
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Stage 3 was the same road like in 2010, and Japan´s T2-production car Dakar Champion Jun Mitsuhashi (Toyota Land Cruiser 200) was surprised at himself because he remembered the course very well. He charged on the dusty road without a view and avoided the dangers by applying full brakes. His hunch and the ability he grew in his motorcycle rider era worked well.
Jun Mitsuhashi and his Belgian codriver Alain Guehennec finally succeeded to catch up and passed the top leading vehicle car No.340 at 60km point from the start in low visibility caused by the dusts.
They seized the top position in his class but the pace was slow therefore, it took a while to finish the race. Both tried to open up the time difference between him and followers but was blocked by the car a head. Although they succeeded in passing, his pace was not as much as he anticipated.
The 42year-old Mitsuhashi and Guehennec wanted to up their team’s motivation because the starting of stage 1 and 2 was not good. So he planned to stand at the top of the class at tuesday´s Special. They came along at the temporary 1st place in the class and the rank of overall standing was better than yesterday in the 3rd day of the Rally.
"Today was a lucky day for them and the crew" the team reported. However, Jun Mitsuhashi did not care about his rank: "Only three days has passed since the Rally started and there are chokepoints on the way. The air temperature is 46 degrees in the bivouac place. The weather is too hot to take a rest, but I´m feeling feeling a lot better now" the Japanese said.
After the 3rd stage, 10 Toyotas are leading the T2 production car category, first "Non-Toyota" is the Mitsubishi Pajero of the Italian pairing Totani / Totani (13th). Mitsuhashi is followed by the Spaniard Xavier Foj (Toyota Land Cruiser, +8:10 mins) and his teammate Masuhiro Terada in their Toyota Land Cruiser 200 (+15:08).
Cars T2 Production Class Overall Standings after SS03
01) Mitsuhashi / Guehennec (JP/B) I Toyota LC 200 I 07:41:42 I 00:00:00
02) Foy / Cervantes (ES/ES) I Toyota LC 150 I 07:49:52 I 00:08:10
03) Terada / Tanaka (JP/JP) I Toyota LC 200 I 07:56:50 I 00:15:08
04) Al Heraiz / Al Kendi (UAE/UAE) I Toyota LC Prado I 08:20:47 I 00:39:05
05) Wauters / Feryn (B/B) I Toyota LC 100 I 08:24:21 I 00:42:39
2012/01/04 | 16:56 CET | ARTICLE: MR/HS/MITSUHASHI
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