2013 Japan Rally (JRC) Rd. 3: Fukushima - Yanagisawa Places 2nd Motor Sport English page CUSCO

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English > Motor Sport > 2013 Japan Rally (JRC) Rd. 3: Fukushima - Yanagisawa Places 2nd

2013 Japan Rally (JRC) Rd. 3: Fukushima - Yanagisawa Places 2nd

Yanagisawa WRX-STi Finishes 2nd in Round 3 of JRC Rally!

Miyoshi 86 Overcomes Distress and Pulls Off Top Run in Day 2

The round 3 of the 2013 All Japan Rally (JRC) "Fukushima MSCC Rally" took place June 6-7th in the town of Tanagura in the Fukushima Prefecture.

Following the previous JRC round in Kumagoi, Team Cusco again entered competition with teams Hiroshi Yanagisawa/Yoshimasa Nakahara (JN4 Class) in the Subaru WRX STi and Hideaki Miyoshi/Takahiro Yasui (JN3 Class) in the Toyota 86. Considering his expertise in gravel rally, Yanagisawa aimed for his second consectutive victory with his new Advan A053 equipped wheels while Miyoshi who debuted his 86 in the previous year at this same stage, was full of confidence. The Cusco Junior Rally Team consisted of the same as the previous round, Shintaro Meiji/Kazuko Matsui and Kousuke Murata/Shinri Hirayama in the Proton Satria Neo vehicles.

Separating Yanagisawa and last year's champion Norihoki Katsuta was a mere 0.8 second difference where in day 1, early morning showers made racing situaltions a bit worrisome for many drivers. However, mother nature turned around and gave full support to the rally by providing dry and sunny conditions throughout the rest of the event days.

Yanagisawa clocked in the top 3 consecutively in various stages and resulted in an overall 2nd place in series points. Fumio Nutahara in the Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X put great pressure on the 1st and 2nd place finishers in day 1, where Yanagisawa ends in 2nd, a 23.6 second lead over Nutahara.

The Cusco WRX Sti managed to cling to the 3rd place time throughout the second race day but failed to surpass Nutahara's 2nd place lead. Due to a turn of events, the first place Katsuta retired this day with machine trouble and Nutahara ends up placing 1st while Yanagisawa gets bumped up to an overall 2nd.

Left：CUSCO ADVAN WRX-STI
Right：Hiroshi Yanagisawa

Ranked 3rd overall in his class, Miyoshi faces a series of unfortunate luck in this round. Being that this was a gravel stage, rock particles plagued the machine as it became cavitated in the driveline, taking out the speed sensor. This resulted in Miyoshi dropping his pace significantly, as the vehicle limped to a 6th place finish for the day. The second day were filled with more optimism as the machine recorded two 1st place runs and various 3rd place finishes. Nevertheless, his overall series ranking had dropped to 6th place.

Left：CUSCO ADVAN 86
Right：Hideaki Miyoshi

The main objective for Murata this round was to become familiar with the Proton Satria Neo and finishing the race in one piece, due to it being his first time in this machine. The result was a 7th place finish just behind Miyoshi in the JN3 Class. Meiji, on the other hand faced serious issues where a crash lead to a flat tire at the SS2, and driveshaft failure during the SS4. These events regretfull had forced him to retire this race.

Left: Sato Ria ・DUNLOP・Proton Satria Neo (Kosuke Murata)

Right: Takasaki Cusco ・ADVAN・Proton Satria Neo (Shintaro Meiji)