On the morning of the 3rd, local time in Argentina, the 34th Dakar Rally entered the competition for its third stage. The Zhou Jihong/Liao Min crew from the Yunnan Oriental Racing Team completed the special stage in 3 hours, 9 minutes, and 15 seconds, ranking 39th in the stage and also 39th in the overall standings.
The stage on that day ran from San Rafael to San Juan, covering a total distance of nearly 500 kilometers, including a 208-kilometer special stage. After finishing the race smoothly, the Zhou Jihong/Liao Min duo from the Oriental Racing Team will start the next day in 40th position, and everything seems to be progressing very smoothly. However, regarding the team’s currently rising momentum, “golden navigator” Liao Min is actually “not happy but worried.” His biggest concern remains the driver’s emotions — he’s afraid that as Zhou Jihong’s results get better and better, his confidence and speed may also increase, leading to mistakes. “The track here is basically more or less the same as racing in China. Although it’s my first time participating in this event, I feel it’s not much different from a certain stage in Xinjiang or Inner Mongolia. Domestic long-distance off-road races are generally run in similar environments. Either there’s nothing growing along the sides of the track, making it very desolate, or there are low, thorny little grasses — there’s really nothing to use as a reference. For drivers, because there’s not much difference, it’s still very easy to get fatigued.”
Regarding his teammate’s concerns, Zhou Jihong admitted: “I did make a mistake today — I drove too fast.” This attitude shows that Zhou Jihong has been shifting his pressure through self-deprecating humor. Summing up the first three days of the race, Zhou Jihong, who is competing in the Dakar Rally for the first time, said frankly: “Today’s stage was a gravel track with a certain altitude, and there were a lot of rocks on the course, which are particularly hard on the car. I’d say we ran very smoothly, facing every obstacle very seriously. There were some sections where I drove a bit too fast, but the navigator kept reminding me and I adjusted my speed again. My cooperation with the navigator has been pretty good — he’s constantly correcting me.”
Looking ahead to the next stage, which spans over 800 kilometers (including more than 300 kilometers of special stages), Zhou Jihong confidently stated: “We’ll continue to face it steadily. We have great confidence in this track.”
