Ecorun race: Last season at Suzuka, 2000

It is surprisingly cold this Saturday morning. We are headed for the last mileage marathon of the century and coincidentally of Suzuka as well. As the weather worsens, on the paddocks, where our two cars are parked, we are served hot coffee to warm each other. This will be the first time that Ecorun is run under rain.

Posters of the last edition of the competition are plastered everywhere. One showing a driver locked in reverie and wondering if he is going to cry at the finish line, another with a rusty helmet brimming with stickers of each edition since 1980. For most teams, here, it is nostalgia and the last chance to perform, to achieve this ultimate personal objective.

This morning, both our two cars have leaked water inside. Hiratsuka's pants are frozen wet. Enya, in his brand new black car, is joyful. A few taping and a temporary hood placed on top of the motor are good enough for the afternoon. Our cars are running very smooth and no major problem occurred today. Pleased, we are heading back home for our warm beds.

Good night!

Rain has declined a little bit. We hope that it is not going to come back during our race scheduled for the afternoon. Today, there is a special: a French team that holds the mileage marathon world record for diesel is making an appearance. We learn that because only gasoline motors are allowed at Suzuka, the French team's run will not be registered. I try to speak French with some members but they are understandably very busy and don't have much time to chat. Fortunately, Aiming-2's departure is just before the departure of the French team and this allows me to take good pictures and says some encouraging comments! It is not raining but the asphalt is wet. Both Aiming-2 and Aiming-3 will cross side by side at the finish line, it is a beautiful ending to this Suzuka experience.

Even more satisfying, after a long waiting in front of the television screens that show the results, we learn that Aiming-2 (Mr. Hiratsuka) will finish 37th while Aiming-3 (Mr. Enya) crossed the finish line the 101th among 501 participating cars. This is the best finish of all time for our team (last year, Aiming-2 finished 64th and Aiming-3 crashed...). Finally, once again this year, Aiming-2 got the best record of all Aisin cars (14 of them). Because of the rain and the wet surface, the top teams have not performed so well in general. For example, the winner of the race ran just above 700 km/L (when previous years would see the winner surpassing the 1000 km/L mark).

Next Year? It is already planned that the winner of the Okazaki race (a local race with only 100 cars) among Aisin cars will most likely take part in the Moteki race, the other big Ecoran event in Japan. This would take in the north side of Tokyo, some 700 kilometers from Nagoya. Are we going with 1 Liter? Of course!!!