Round 9 of the All Japan Rally Championship was a tarmac rally held around Takayama city in Gifu prefecture. This rally is known as the “car break rally” because of its extreme conditions and from this season, the gravel sections were left out. With only tarmac sections, the conditions would not affect the cars as much, which meant all the participants were pretty much competing at the same level.

 

In the last round, Ishida in class JN-4 missed out taking the series championship, so to make up for it, he was fired up and ready to go. He set the fastest time in SS1 – SS3. The action started to heat up, and in SS4 he pretty much set equal times to that of Katsuta in 2^nd position. But unfortunately in SS4 he damaged his exhaust and started losing boost pressure! This eventually forced him to retire from the rally in SS8 and it also confirmed his 2^nd overall position in the series championship

 

The next and final round of the season will be the all tarmac “Shinshiro Rally 2008” held in Shinshiro city, Aichi prefecture from the 21^st to 23^rd November. Look forward to the action from all TEIN users.