Kenjiro Shinozuka

WRC driver


Name = Kenjiro Shinozuka
Caption =
Nationality = flagicon|Japan Japanese
Years = 1976–97
Teams = Mitsubishi Motors
Races = 20
Championships =
Wins = 2
Podiums = 3
Stagewins = 3
Points = 88
First race = 1976 Safari Rally
First win = 1991 Rallye Côte d'Ivoire
Last win = 1992 Rallye Côte d'Ivoire
Last race = 1997 Rally Australia

Kenjiro Shinozuka (篠塚 建次郎) (born Ota, Tokyo, November 20, 1948) is a Japanese rally driver. Since his debut in 1967, his greatest successes have been as a works driver for Mitsubishi Motors. Behind the wheel of a Galant VR-4 he won the Asia-Pacific Rally Championship in 1988 and scored consecutive victories in the Rallye Côte d'Ivoire Bandama in 1991 and 1992, when it was a round of the World Rally Championship, making him the first Japanese competitor to win a WRC event. [ [http://www.mitsubishi-motors.com/corporate/museum/motorsports/e/90s/galant_vr4.htm History of Galant VR-4] , Mitsubishi Motors website] He is also of note for his success in the Dakar Rally, where he became the first Japanese winner of the world's most famous endurance rally in 1997 driving a Mitsubishi Pajero. [ [http://www.mitsubishi-motors.com/corporate/museum/motorsports/e/1997.html 1997 Dakar-Agades-Dakar] , Mitsubishi Motors website]

Shinozuka resigned from Mitsubishi in 2002, [ [http://www.ralliart.com/02topics/topics9/index.html "Mitsubishi Motors' Kenjiro Shinozuka resigns"] , Ralliart.com press release, June 13, 2002] but continued to compete. He drove a Nissan pickup in the 2003 Dakar, but after hitting a sand dune he rolled his vehicle several times, enduring severe facial injuries and being placed in a coma. His co-driver Thierry Delli-Zotti suffered fractures to both his legs, although unlike Shinuzoka his injuries were not life-threatening. [ [http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/sport/archives/2003/01/11/190650 "Rally driver escapes with his life"] , "Taipei Times", January 11, 2003]

Shinuzoka announced before the 2006 event that it would be his final appearance as a competitor, saying " [m] y decision has been taken: it’s my last Dakar. But I still hope to enjoy myself one last time behind the steering wheel. To win? No, that’s not my goal. After that, I don’t yet know what I’ll do but I do know that we need new talents in Japan. Just look at our drivers, they're all sixty or over, like Asaga san or Sugawara san… So I might help out in finding new promising competitors for the future." [ [http://www.dakar.com/2006/DAK/LIVE/us/-10300/index.html "Kenjiro Shinozuka: "It’s my last Dakar!"] , Dakar.com official website] However despite this, he returned for the 2007 Dakar, again driving a Nissan, and finished in 59th place out of the 109 cars that finished the race.

WRC Victories

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External links

*ja icon [http://www.shinoken.net/ Shinoken.net] , official website

Footnotes