Round 4 of Japanese Rally Championship Report
Yanagisawa=EvoX showed true speed with top result on Day 2 while Satria Neos again showed its superb reliability
Round 4 of Japanese Rally Championship ”Ganbarou! Fukushima MSCC Rally 2011” was held from 11-12 June around Tanakura-town, Fukushima. Total all gravel 12 stages which 42.87km of distance were consisted for the event, however SS11 was cancelled. Cusco Racing brought CUSCO ADVAN EVO. X driven by Hiroshi Yanagisawa as it third outing to the series this season. Alongside Yanagisawa, Shuhei Muta challenged this event in CUSCO ADVAN PROTON which is PROTON Satria Neo built by CUSCO. For the machine, this event is also third outing to the series.
After struck by giant Tsunami last March, this region has been struggling for the recovery from the disaster. To support their effort and giving the event excitement, this event welcomed Japanese ace Toshi Arai who competed national championship event first time in last 14 years joining Japanese actor Sho Aikawa who also experienced to drive WRC round in Japan.
On Day1 which saw wet condition, Yanagisawa experienced flat tyre on the first stage and lost hugely 50 seconds. Also bad visibility due to heavy fog, he was not able to get proper rhythm and finished the day in 5th place. He got better feeling on Day 2 and showed his true stage with setting three of fastest time in total 4 stages of the day. He was not able to close his gap to higher position, however showed his real strength which built on his APRC campaign until last season.
Meanwhile Muta tackled the battle among JN3 which uniquely dividing the class and forcing Muta to battle with higher powered machine such as Integra or Celica. As stages of the day were mainly descent, he could take benefit of it and showed equivalent speed with his rivals. He regrettably withdrawn from the day when he had half spin and off the course, however his spilt time proved his speed.
For this event, two of identical machines were brought by CUSCO Junior Team driven by Shintaro Meiji and Shohei Ishikawa. Both machines got more competitiveness with installing the dog transmission. Meiji showed stable performance through the entire event and finished in last position of the podium of the class. Meanwhile Ishikawa set superb time just 1 second off from the fastest time at a stage and finished the event in just behind of Meiji. All of CUSCO built Satria Neos have experienced no trouble at all since its debut on the series so far which proves excellent reliability of the machine.
The next outing of CUSCO Racing and CUSCO Junior Team will be Round 6 of the series, “2011 ARK Rally Toya” which will be held from 2-4 September around Lake Toya, Hokkaido.
