Yanagisawa Ranked Overall 3rd in Cusco's Hometown Rally

The 5th round of the 2012 All Japan Rally Championships took place in Shibukawa City, Gunma Prefecture with the venue more so known as the "Montre 2012 in Shibukawa". This challenging tarmac stage was scheduled as a three day event, from July 27th to 29th.

Over 20,000 spectators attended the event, with Cusco Racing in full effect with 6 rally machines all topped off and ready for battle. With the last rally event in Gunma being in 2003, the locals were very excited to have such a prestigious venue in their home town.

The contenders for this round for the Cusco World Rally Team were the series overall 2nd place ranked Yanagisawa/Nakahara and their team mates Muta/Hoshino piloted their GRB Subaru Impreza STi, as well as the APRC 2nd overall ranked combo Sumiyama/Kase in their CZ4A Mitsubishi Evo X. The Toyota 86 was back again for another round with Miyoshi/Yasui, and the Proton Satria Neos piloted by Meiji/Kimura and Ishikawa/Akaba, making up 6 vehicles for Team Cusco.

Although Yanagisawa had finished in top place in the previous round, the dry condition tarmac stage proved to be troublesome in terms of vehicle setting, finishing in overall 4th place for day 1. Sumiyama managed to pull a great time for a single stage however finished overall 7th, and Muta ranked in at 8th, a direct result of a flat tire at SS7.

Day 2 proved to be another struggle as Yanagiswa suffered a penalty as the team pushed to make it through the race, finishing in at 3rd overall. Sumiyama's results bumped them up to 6th overall, and Muta unfortunately retired at SS11 due to machine trouble.

In the JN-3 class, Miyoshi in the Toyota 86 ended the first day with vehicle issues, but finished the next day's race ranking in at 3rd place overall. Meiji went into the race ranked at 6th place and ended the 2nd day SS12 with engine failure, still maintaining the same rank at the end of the event. Team Ishikwa finished 6th place, bumping their rank up with points earned for the next race.

 The next 6th round of the JRC round "Kyogo Hanto Rally 2012" is scheduled to take place on August 24th~26th in the Kansai region of Japan, so stay tuned!