Through all the classic car rallies I have driven, I have kept taking on new territory too, on the road towards the great challenge of Peking to Paris.
The goal was to obtain the international Class C and Class R licences.
New: a racing suit
When I last did Monte-Carlo, the drivers from abroad had rows of patches on their overalls from every year they had entered. Impossibly cool.
It became a new goal of mine to do Monte-Carlo again and add patches one by one. That, really, is where my enjoyment of this lies.
Once I had set that goal, the first thing was to get a racing suit that would lift my motivation. Starting with the look of the thing matters a great deal.
This was not the moment to spend money on it, but there was no reason to put it off, so I spent what I had earned from my part-time jobs. And with that, my next goal was decided too.
Thinking about the Monte-Carlo patches lining up on this suit already excites me.
The sixth round of the JAF championship: Rally Challenge 2022, Akitakata
I have driven a great many rallies, including ones abroad — but a JAF round starts you from zero as a complete beginner, and gravel courses and special stages were unknown territory for me.
Learning something this different from anything I had done before meant serious study on my own — or rather, no, not really (laughs) — here too I was blessed with people’s support. From round one I have had people teaching me all sorts of things, and made a co-driver friend along the way.
Inspired by taking this on, she said she would work hard to enter too, and spent her savings on a racing suit — bought cheap, in fact, second-hand from me on Mercari. So I saved money out of it too.
This time a certain well-known figure was there as well, and I never imagined I would end up setting foot in this world too.
My first retirement
The point of this JAF championship was getting the licence, so above all I needed to clear the five rounds required to finish. And in today’s sixth round —
yes. I went off. As for how I felt at the moment I thought “I’m going to hit something”, I was calm enough to find it funny myself. No tension in my body at all, just “ah, I’ve gone off” — laughing.
But there was no time for that. The important thing was to call for help and not get in the way of everyone else’s competition. Of course, I took the proper action and got clear, and waited for the stage to finish.
Just waiting felt like a waste when only I would remember it, so — a live stream (laughs).
This one is probably worth getting told off for. But every bit of it is a memory of my life.
Please forgive me for being like this. I promise to go on sharing how I enjoy rallying, in my own way.
And I hope the day comes when you look back and laugh, thinking: there was someone like that around here …