I attended the Japan Rally Championship that was held near my hometown as a member of the rescue team. I was asked to be ready in case of accidents, but fortunately no injuries occurred, though more than 30% of the entrants couldn't reach the goal due to the terrible weather. I simply enjoyed the rally as one of the spectators.
When I was addicted to car driving a quarter-century ago, the rally drivers who were allowed to join the country-level competition were envied by lots of young people, including me. It was not easy to be qualified to drive a car in this highest level of the competition. The rally was competed by 60 cars and it was difficult to get into this 60 car field. However, to my extreme surprise, the number of entrants was only 35 this year. The competition rate used to be more than two, but now it was only about 0.6.
I suspected that the influence of the recent stagnation cast a shadow also in the field of motor sports. The organizer was struggling to attract spectators. They invited an actively working professional WRC driver and held an autograph-signing session, but it was not so effective as they expected because of the horrible rain. I hope that the world economy will recover soon.
- (Vocabulary)
- human / personal suffering 人的被害
- field
- 《常に単数形で》 競合者［会社，製品］, ライバル
- a strong field of candidates for the job その職を志望する強力なライバルたち
- lead the field 〈企業・製品などが〉 群を抜く, トップに立つ
- 《常に単数形で》 (人・動物などの) 全競技者
- He's racing against a very strong field this afternoon. 今日の午後，彼は非常に強力なライバルたちと競走する．
- lead the field (レースで) 先頭に立つ
- cast / make a shadow 影を落とす
- actively working 現役の
- WRC World Rally Championship 世界ラリー選手権
- autograph-signing session サイン会
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