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2013 Japan Rally Championship Finals: Shinshiro Rally

Hiroshi Yanagisawa takes podium finish at the All Japan Rally Championships final round: Shinshiro Rally!

The final round of the 2013 All Japan Rally Championships (JRC) took place on October 26-27th as a tarmac stage in the Aichi Prefecture, Shinshiro City.

The Shinshiro Rally celebrates its 10th year in competition, where in the last few years of the season it has served as the final stage in the JRC Rally. The event continues to successfully promote the sport of Rallying where the Aichi prefecture now sponsors the venue. Big names such as Bjorn Waldegard, Toshihiro Arai, and Nobuhiro Tajima also held exhibition runs that were broadcasted on the large screen tv for the spectators and additionally transmitted live via internet for the entire world to see. The TRD Challenge was also held in conjunction with the main even this year, with the president of Toyota Motor Co. participating in the race. A total of 42,000 spectators were recorded attendance during this 2 day event.

Hiroshi Yanagisawa / Yoshimasa Nakahara represented Team Cusco in the JN4 All Japan Rally Championships Shinshiro stage in the Subaru STI. Entering the race ranked at an overall 3rd place, the combo places their bets and aims for their very first victory. Hideaki Miyoshi / Takahiro Yasui combo in the JN3 class faced several big name opponents such as the Super GT driver Tetsuya Yamano and the F3 driver Takamoto Katsuta.

Heavy downpour due to the storm continued to punish the contenders and the road surface of the rally. By the first race day, the weather had turned itself around and to nice and sunny skies as well as the following day of the rally. A 9.18km rally consisting of a 6SS 3 short stage loops of 0.95km around the rallypark was setup for day 1. For day 2, another 6SS with a 2 loop 3SS of 14.7km was set, for an overall combined 12SS 78.54km race for the weekend.

Yanagisawa decided upon a tire compound that complied both to wet and dry surfaces due to the unstable weather for the first race day. This decision resulted in the best time for SS1 in the JN4 class since heavy rainfall ensued throughout the race. The battle for the All Japan series title continued between Yanagisawa, Katsuta (Subaru STI), Nutahara (Mitsubishi Evo X), and Takayama (Subaru STI) where at the end of the race, Yanagisawa was just 0.8 seconds shy of Takayama to rank in 2nd.

Yanagisawa / Nakahara CUSCO ADVAN WRX-STI

In the JN3 class, Miyoshi manged to clock in the second best time in the last short stage to rank in at 5th place. He was right behind the other talented contenders such as Yamano and Katsuta.

Miyoshi / Yasui CUSCO AVDAN 86

Yanagisawa faced various issues where the cold temperature promoted slippery road surfaces causing one accident after another, forcing him to drop down a place in his rank. However clocking in the 2nd best time in the following stages, he successfully secures himself a podium finish. The fight for podium as well as 4th place was a close one in the JN3 class. Miyoshi performed exceptionally well in the high speed portion and marking the best time for the SS9 stage earned him 4th place at the end.

 
Photo Left to Right: Hiroshi Yanagisawa, Yoshimasa Nakahara, Hideaki Miyoshi, Takahiro Yasui
Hideaki Miyoshi, Takahiro Yasui

This concludes the 9th season of the All Japan Rally Championships. Team Cusco Subaru WRX STI (Yanagisawa/Nakahara) ranks in at 3rd place, and the Toyota 86 (Miyoshi) in 3rd overall series rank. Thank you once again for your continued support this season! The last race for the season for Team Cusco is the Asia Cup Thailand Rally held on 12/7-8th.