Japanese driver sets the pace in Dakar Rally prologue

JAPANESE driver Kenjiro Shinozuka, the 1997 auto champion, made a winning start in the 1.5km prologue of the 26th Dakar Rally which got underway despite heavy snow yesterday.

Shinozuka, who was forced to abandon last year’s race after an horrific crash, timed 1min 41.62sec to come in 0.53sec ahead of fellow Nissan driver Giniel De Villiers of South Africa with Italy’s Miki Biasion in a Mitsubishi third at 0.84.

Italy’s Matteo Graziani, riding for the all-powerful KTM team, was the surprise winner of the motorbike prologue in a time of 1min 23.90sec.

He came in ahead of last year’s prologue winner Cyril Despres, who was 7.84sec behind, with another Frenchman, the 1999, 2000 and 2003 champion Richard Sainct, third at 9.31sec.

The prologue determined the starting order for today’s second stage, a 25km special stage from Narbonne, before a 538km link across the Spanish border to Castellon.

The 2004 race has 17 stages, 14 in Africa, with a total distance of 11,163.5km (6,936.7 miles) - 5,428.5km of which are timed sections - with just one scheduled rest day on January 12 in Bobo Dioulasso, the second city of Burkina Faso.

Competitors from Colombia, Latvia and Guatemala are appearing for the first ever time.