Starting something isn’t only for special people —
it’s something anyone can genuinely just enjoy! That was the lesson I was reminded of, closing out 2022, at the
Gruppo 100 Rally.

I got my licence after I’d already started rallying.
No money, no car, but I kept moving forward purely on the wish to do it, and that’s how I got to where I am now.
In life, what you ask for is given — I’ve trusted my own feelings and actions, and that’s brought me to where I am today.

On the way to 2024’s huge challenge, the first for a Japanese woman — the “Peking to Paris Motor Challenge” —
you can read about the challenge here
↓ ↓

The record of a motorsport woman driving a life: the challenge to 14,000 km, Peking to Paris
05.05.2022
Sumiko Kokonno, who lost a breast to cancer — the Peking to Paris 14,000 km Motor Challenge 2024, taking on life …
/introduce
Everyone keeps travelling the journey called a life. Of course there is nothing wrong with a calm, safe journey that takes no risks. But you can also choose to take on an outrageous adventure. Further education, work, sport, art, starting a business … anything at all. An adventure, I think, is the dream or the goal inside you. And however small that dream or goal might look to someone else, dreams and goals are not large or small. The only question is whether you want to take it on — whether you seriously want it to happen. Tell someone about an “adventure of a life” like this, and you will sometimes be denied, or mocked …

Making this dream real takes an enormous amount of money, so I have worked several jobs at once, holding back on play and my own wants, and simply kept moving forward toward making the dream real.

Many people helped fund the Peking to Paris challenge, and in 2022 I also got to take part in the warm-up event, the “Sahara Challenge.”


The “Peking to Paris Motor Challenge”, originally set to run in 2023,
was postponed to 2024 because conditions in China, the starting point, still weren’t settled — and with that came storage costs for the car, maintenance,
and entry fees still not fully paid — a tougher fight against costs, still ahead of me.

Spring and autumn bring rally season here in Japan too, and however much I want to enter, I can’t justify putting money into it right now … Another year of holding back, coming around again.

In the midst of days like that, the one Japanese rally I did get to enter in 2022 wasthe “Gruppo 100 Rally.” I got to spend the time there having real fun, giving it everything.

And then …
a lovely photo and thanks arrived from the organizer.
This time, at the Gruppo 100 Rally, I got to experience every part of it as a driver!

And remarkably, I was even given a special award, along with a lovely message. I’m overflowing with gratitude for the organizer’s wonderful thoughtfulness.

Special Award: the Shintani/Sono pair, MG Midget

Thank you to Mr. Shintani, who joined this time with stories from the Sahara Challenge as a souvenir, and who took on Mr. Nemoto’s impromptu request during the evening gathering.
Seeing entrants move their seats forward and listen eagerly to stories you can’t hear anywhere else made me happy as an organizer too.
And Komo-chan, the only woman driving, got to be watched running the foot-park slalom — and honestly, her line was pretty good, but more than anything, her driving, all smiles and clearly enjoying herself, was wonderful to see!

I’ll keep driving on, with a smile!