RtG Japan Daily Dispatch - day00 - Flipbook - Page 4
18 September to
16 October 2025
Day 1
Sapporo to Asahikawa (243km)
19 September 2025
Photos: gerardbrown.co.uk
Tricia Field and Susan Godfrey, 1950 Bentley Special
We bade sayonara to Sapporo this morning, as we
were flagged away from the Premier Hotel Tsubaki
in Japan’s fifth-largest city, by Aya Tanimoto from
our Into Japan rally support team.
With a departure neatly timed to miss the morning rush
hour, and with its engine throbbing like a taiko drummer,
Graham and Marina Goodwin’s Bentley, the oldest car in
the event, was first away and shot into the grid system to
begin the 28-day journey to Fukuoka.
Hokkaido has little traffic and a low population density,
so the cars made good progress to the first Test of the
event at the Nanporo Riverside Kartland track. Donning
helmets, as per the local regulations, each crew pulled
forward to John Llewellyn and Jim Smith, who counted
them down to their allotted two laps of the latest round
of the RtG run-what-you-brung trophy. This was a highspeed section, with optional drifting, whereas the second
Test at the Kuriyama Driving School, was a more cerebral
affair. The cars could not exceed 25kph or take more than
five minutes to navigate their way through a series of eight
code boards - no reversing allowed.
A mid-morning coffee at the Time Control in the Hinode
Classic Collection & Cafe gave drivers and navigators a wellwww.rallytheglobe.com
