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| 2004.01.19 |
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2004 Dakar Rally: Yoshio Ikemachi wins T1 Class in his rookie year in 'Auto'
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Giniel De Villiers prized with overall 7th finish.
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On January 18 local time, Telefonica Dakar 2004 (also known as Paris-Dakar) completed its trek that covered 18 days and 11,090.5 kilometers and arrived at its goal, the city of Dakar, the capitol of Senegal.
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A Japanese rookie, Yoshio Ikemachi, made a bold challenge to Paris-Dakar in "Auto", and he won in his entry to the T1 Class with a Nissan Patrol (known as a Nissan Safari in Japan). Ikemachi was a member of the Japanese Rookie Program launched in 2003 by Nissan and Nismo. In the T2 Class, Giniel De Villiers (South Africa) finished seventh overall, and former WRC Champion Colin McRae (Great Britain) finished 20th in his first challenge to Paris-Dakar.
Nissan, in the second year of its four-year Paris-Dakar challenge plan, scored four top-timed Special Stages (SS) among all 17. De Villiers, in his second challenge, won SS3, and Vatanen won his 50th stage in SS4 the next day. McRae won two stages - SS13 and 17 - in his rookie challenge.
Gilles Martineau (Team manager):
"This was our second challenge. As you know, Paris-Dakar is a tough race. This time, we learned many things. We know we should focus more on reliability when we work on development of the cars."
Yoshio Ikemachi (Winner of T1 Class, overall 22nd):
"I'm very happy to win the T1 Class. We had a good team, a good car, a good co-driver and everything else. I am grateful to the mechanics, who worked so hard every day to fix the car so it would hold up until the end, and the whole system of the team worked really well. I want to thank everybody."
Giniel De Villiers (Overall 7th):
"First, I was happy to get three top times in Stage 3. We were able to rally positively. This year, the reliability of the car was not perfect, but I was able to enjoy the event as a whole."
Colin McRae (Overall 20th):
"It was a race that taught me a lot. The Nissan Pickup was fun to drive and was quite pleasant. It was a good experience. I would like to come back again next year."
Ari Vatanen (Withdrew at Stage 14):
"We worked so hard to reach Bobo-Dioulasso, so I am very disappointed to have crashed into a tree, broken the car and withdrawn. But the Pickup is much better than last year, and there is so much to expect for next year."
Kenichi Sasaki (Nissan Global Motorsports Officer and President of Nismo):
"Drivers, mechanics, the whole team worked very hard. Last year, in our rookie year, we learned what Paris-Dakar was about. Our second year was about learning what we need to reach our goal. We will now develop the car, team and management further. The Rookie Program has already borne fruit with the unexpected success of the win in the T1 Class, and there is so much in the future for the driver and team to look forward to. It was a great success, and I am grateful for the support from every person concerned."
The team is also planning to invite Nani Roma (Spain), who won in "Moto", to the Nissan Works Car test this spring.
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