The funny penguin

Although no page have appeared on ecoran for a while on my home page, it does not mean that ecoran did not exist anymore! A lot of things happened there too. Actually, just last year, both cars (Aiming II and III) participated in 5 races all over Japan: Suzuka (F-1 Grand Prix, Mie prefecture), Motegi (Formula Cart, ), Fuji SpeedWay (Shizuoka prefecture), Okazaki (Aichi prefecture) and Hikone (Shiga prefecture) races. With such a busy schedule, I lost track of so many results...

First encounter

Until today. Until a funny mackerel appeared drop dead nearby our cars at last year's Motegi race. Sarcastic Japanese comic maniac-readers would know. It was Motozawa-san, a lunatic "pince-sans-rire" with a sense of humor as sharp as a kendo sword (his first name by the way). The drop dead mackerel, another farce, a costume to belittle his own humanity. He would wear another costume, a penguin, driving an engineered decronstructed-reconstructed baregly legal Honda lightweight motorcycle to third place to the hilarious pleasure of the crowd and the bemused eyes of the officials.

Maybe it was the first time that he met a foreigner. Very probable. He asked Hiratsuka-san, the leader of our team if I could be the driver for their scooter and I said: "hum, sure but not in a penguin suit".

++++++++++++++++++++

First impressions

It just seems that this guy's got nothing to do at work! Writing pages long e-mails in enumeration style with such complicated Japanese characters that I have never seen. I mean, I have a hard time writing this home page at night when this guy spent most of his days dribbling with his keywords. Just envy. I wish that had a permenant muse. This is another problem talking about this guy is, that he is such a complex figure that it is hard to understand him, even for a Japanese...

First car inspection

How this equals my driving experience at this year's Suzuka. Under a thundering rain in the middle of the rainy season, with just one try on that "Water service bureau" as the bike is otherly knowned by his master, my right hand is shaking on the throttle twist grip. I am told to hide the left gearshift lever with my left hand during the inspection by the officials. Studying the inspection procedures for half hour, he has decided that the two officials on the left lane are "soft". Still smugling and thanking god on the fact that even if this race is popular, the big guns of the lightweight motorcycle class are not present today. "Well, we are the only king on the hill!" and some more complicated Japanese about how god loves him.

But we succeed the inspection check by the officials who were charmed by my "Ohayo gozaimasu, onegai shimasu" (Good morning, please do as you wish). Motozawa showed the required document about the design of the bike completely blank, still half-thanking god, hi hi hi, for such stupid officials when one of the mechanic, Ajimura-san said that the engine could not start. Damned! A somber souvenir of two weeks ago, when the only oil flowing from the gearbox looked like melt chocolate icecream, the result of yet another rainy race leftover. We had to deconstruct the engine, clean every parts with hexane spray and reconstruct. But this time, things would go just fine with Motozawa remembering that he wrongly swichted a few electric connections in the speedmeter?! And then saying that "What the %'&'(, now, you two guys get the %&#" bike to the racing track before I die!" and some more complicated Japanese about how he wishes to die foreover.

First tour on Suzuka track

I sprang the start line of the practice session a bit too fast. Another half-hearted joke for Motozawa-san. Why didn't I knew that this is a race where the best car consumes the least gasoline. But coming back from my first tour of the Suzuka circuit made me so happy. Even with the rain pipping in my eyes, I said that I was scared. But did not find the right words to say that I was scared, not because of the slippery surface, the high speed first corner with no kicking brakes, but because the engine could die on me in the middle. But they were proud of my time lap, so we went for another practice session before the time run out. This time, I took control of a beautiful slow start, taking time to take my preferred riding style which on the main straight, from faraway, looks like my butt is flying.

First ecorun race

I ate happily my bentoh (lunch box) and got ready for the real game. Same start in an even stronger rain. Like Tornedo #5 is coming. But it is not anyway. Seeing all the over-heated cars on the side track, particularly just before climbing the big hill is scary. I don't want to get stuck there in the middle of the rain, waiting for the pickup truck for a couple of hours. But I managed to put my nerve and my luck in check. The engine did not start once but I could kick it off quickly. After 5 tours of the Suzuka circuit, I am happy to pass the goal line!

First championship win

Ajimura-san is quick to bring the gasoline tank to the officials to calculate the gasoline consumption. We made 216km/L! Enough to win in this class with 7 contenders. I walk on the top podium for the first time with Ajimura-san who gets about 60 boxes of cup noodles. It is quite a great experience.

But this is not all... They are thinking now about retiring the bike... because it is just too illegal for the competition at Motegi in September. Either we make a new engine or we make the necessary modifications to make it a little bit more officially legal... To be continued.

Writing for me is just so much fun. Not writing my homepage for such a long time has left me sprawl for my keywords. I guess that we all have some Motozawa feeling in us.