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The first inaugural round of the 2013 Japan Rally Championships (JRC) is the "Tour de Kyushu 2013 in Karatsu) took place April 12-14th, as a Tarmac stage.

Having a total of 9 rounds in the JRC and like every year, the entire participants attended the ceremonial blessing at the local temple.

Team Cusco this year consisted of Hiroshi Yanagisawa / Yoshimasa Nakahara (JN4 Class), Hideaki Miyoshi / Takahiro Yasui (JN3 Class), in the Subaru WRX STi / Toyota 86 respectively. It was Miyoshi's first time competing in the first round whereas in the previous season, his participation in this series started in the third round.

The course this year comprised of a 2 day 19 stage rally at a total of 67.80km distance.

The JN4 class this year looked to be a brutal one. Team Yanagisawa looked over the entire machine settings dedicated to the Tarmac surface including the entire suspension, center differential, and even the ECU configurations. With minimal experience on this course and the surface condition, the team managed to get in to the rhythm of the race trapping in at the second best time on SS3, followed by an overall 3rd place finish for the first day.

The second rally day featured Yanagisawa's consistent run, where the highlight was three consecutive consistent time at 2nd place mark.

The JN3 Class this year was no easy task, where Miyoshi's 86 were put up against many powerful 2WD opponents including Integras, Levins, S2000s, and Lotus.

Doing exceptionally well for day 1, Miyoshi traps the best time at SS6, SS8, and SS12, ranking in at 3rd place standing at the end of the day.

The most difficult stages were at day 2, where many drivers made critical mistakes at the SS15, a 3.81km rally. The mistakes rooted from the contrast between the previous longer stage where the drivers would get used to the high speed rhythm. Being thrown off by this, Miyoshi ended up spinning out and resulting in the 6th best time. Overall, Team Miyoshi ended the race on podium at 3rd place.

The next round of the JRC rally is scheduled to take place May 3-5 labeled the Kumagoen Rally (Gravel).