Finally, the Ecorun race...

Finally, here comes the day of the race. I must say that I am quite nervous. So much effort for only 45 minutes... Although I am not a driver, the excitement of being there, just part of it, is something totally amazing. At the same time, everybody knows that anything can happen. Accidents, and particularly the heat, will make some teams fall in despair.

It is with this mood that we are approaching the pit stations at 9 o'clock in the morning. Same as yesterday, Hiratsuka and Uozaki came earlier to reserve the pit stations. The morning races are reserved to the high school and University cars. Aiming 2, with the number 248 is the first one to leave at the start gate in the afternoon (at 2h00 exactly). Aiming 3 (254) will depart soon after. The Honda team (253) is also among us. Therefore, the attention of the press will be heavily focused around that time. It is good for the publicity...

The morning is fairly relaxed. We are checking the engine and the overall performance of the cars once in a while. The drivers drink super-stamina juice to get full of power during the following hours. We are all waiting for the morning races to finish.

To the start gate It is 1h30! Time to warm-up the engines. Hiratsuka and Enya are putting on their long sleeve shirts, helmet and gloves. Uozaki and I are bringing the Aiming 2 to the pit stations just before the start gate. The reason why we need to carry the car is that we do not want to consume gasoline unnecessary up to the start gate! Because we are the first one to start in the afternoon, we are placed the first on the left. The Honda team is placed just beside us! Aiming 2 Honda 258 249 Aiming 3 : : : :

Here we are, very close to the departure, but the press and all the officials of the race are packed around the Honda car. They are truly the kings of the mileage marathon. And for any king there is always... a queen. There she was, all in little skirt with zebra design. Wow! She was accompanying a guy who will turn out to be making a little program show later during the week on TV. They interviewed the Honda team for about 20 minutes prior to departure. Hiratsuka is telling me that he will become the king of the race one-day... At 2 o'clock, Aiming 2 approaches the start gate where it will leave without any problem. Uozaki and I run to the tracksides to get ready for the next lap. Uozaki has the talk-i-walkee and I time the laps. The limit time for 8 laps is 42 minutes. This represents an average speed of 25 km/h. Well, when you are driving a car made of bamboo, it is quite a challenge... Anyway, the Honda car and Aiming 3 just left and here comes Aiming 2 coming from his first lap. The time is a little fast at 4 minutes but Hiratsuka is telling us that everything is O.K. We are telling him to continue on the same beat and he will finish in approximately 32 minutes.

The above pictures show Aiming 3 leaving the gate and on the track. Both cars have finished in approximately 32 minutes. We had to wait two hours to get the results so we want to eat curry rice at a restaurant nearby. When we came back, we awaited a big surprise. Hiratsuka's Aiming 2 had finished in 64th position with 416 km/L of gasoline and Enya's Aiming 3 in 100th position with 364 km/L. Both we were so happy that they were crying. This was the best position finish in all the history of Aisin Seiki at the mileage marathon. In fact, Hiratsuka has accomplished his dream of exceeding 400 km/L. The Honda team finished first, of course, at mileage of 1060 km/L... We have now proved ourselves that we were able to run two cars above the average mileage of the event (half of the cars have over-heated and could not finish); the objective for next year is no doubt to be among the first 50 with above 500 km/L performance.