Kenjiro Shinozuka has died at the age of 75 – The WRC and Dakar winner suffered from an illness
Kenjiro Shinozuka, who won the Dakar Rally and won events in the World Rally Championship (WRC), has died at the age of 75 after a battle with illness. Shinozuka became famous when he became the first Japanese driver to win both a WRC rally and the famous Dakar Rally.
The Tokyo-born Shinozuka celebrated his greatest successes as a Mitsubishi works driver. In 1988, he won the first Asia-Pacific Championship together with his co-driver Fred Gocentas. The pair clinched the title by winning the Himalayan Rally in India, driving a Mitsubishi Galant VR-4.
But it wasn’t until 1991 that he and co-driver John Meadows made their mark on the WRC when they won the WRC round in the Ivory Coast in a works-supported Galant VR-4 and claimed one of two WRC victories. On this occasion, Shinozuka claimed the first WRC win for a Japanese driver, finishing more than two hours ahead of local Mitsubishi driver Patrick Tauziac.
The following season, Shinozuka repeated his success in the Ivory Coast, this time beating Belgian Opel driver Bruno Thiry.
This was the last WRC triumph for the Japanese driver, who scored 88 points in 20 starts during his WRC career, which began in 1976 and ended in Australia in 1997. Except for one start, he was always behind the wheel of a Mitsubishi, and his relationship with the Japanese brand extended into rally-raid sport.
Shinozuka was also successful in the demanding Dakar Rally. A third place in 1987 was followed twelve months later by a second place behind WRC champion Juha Kankkunen.
Two further third places followed in 1992 and 1995, before he took overall victory in 1997 in a Mitsubishi Pajero after beating Frenchman Jean-Pierre Fontenay. This triumph was also the first for a Japanese driver at the Dakar.
Shinozuka finished on the podium in 1998 (second) and 2002 (third), before ending his long-standing partnership with Mitsubishi and competing for Nissan with Ari Vatanen in 2003.
However, the event was overshadowed by a serious accident in which Shinozuka and his co-driver Thierry Delli-Zotti were involved when they tried to drive around a sand dune. Shinozuka was put into a coma, but survived the life-threatening injuries and took part in the event again the following year. His last start at the Dakar was in 2007, when he finished 59th.
He was inducted into the Japanese Automotive Hall of Fame in 2022 and was part of the safety team at the Rally Japan last year