CUSCO RACING made 2-3 finish in Canberra
| CUSCO RACING WORLD RALLY TEAM: Event Report FIA Asia-Pacific Rally Championship round 2 ”Rally of Canberra” |
CUSCO RACING made 2-3 finish with Herridge and Yanagisawa |
| Second round of 2008 FIA Asia-Pacific Rally Championship(APRC), ”Rally of Canberra” was taken place from 10-11 May at Canberra, capital city of Australia. CUSCO RACING entered two drivers same as last round; Hiroshi Yanagisawa and Australian Dean Herridge who joined team from this year. They took wheel 2007 spec Subaru Impreza WRX STI with wearing CUSCO brand’s guards(SAFETY21), roll-cage and dog-box. Every year Canberra round of APRC features compact route and it’s not difference this year as total distance was only 554km( competition distance was 220km). It’s contrasted with last round in New Caledonia which had 1138.28km as total distance. Yanagisawa experienced finishing this event in 3rd in 2006. For Herridge, it’s not only home event but also made victory in 2004, so it’s very fortunate event for CUSCO RACING crews. However, the event it self is one of most technical rally as very dusty condition and lots of blind crests or junctions. Current APRC champion Cody Crocker starts his season’s campaign from this event, so it was expected that battling of championship would start to make hard properly. The event consisted by total 18 SS using 7 stages. All stages would be use more than twice, event some stages would be used three or four times which would be concerned changing of those condition. |
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| Yanagisawa drove with exciting water splash |
| SS1 was longest stage of the event (28.83km). Yanagisawa had difficult
start with hitting right rear side and bended suspension which resulted
a minute slower than fastest time. After proper repair at service which
let him up, he maintained his speed and finished day 1 in 6th. Herridge
who started from CUSCO RACING second time made steady pace on early stages,
still he marked third fastest time and showed trouble free run, finishing
day 1 in 4th. With having margin to 3rd overall only 18 seconds, he would
to look podium finish on day 2. |
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| Herridge made second podium finish in a row at his home country, Australia |
| On day2, Evans who was in 3rd overall didn’t make start, so Herridge started from 3rd APRC and chased fellow countryman Scott Pedder who was standing 2nd overall. It’s exactly same situation with last round and their margin was only 17 seconds. Day 2 also kicked off by repeat run of 28.83km long stage (SS10). On this stage, Herridge snatched 16.5 seconds from Pedder and made him hard push. Following SS11, Herridge past Pedder and moved up to 2nd overall. After Pedder’s retirement on SS14, he just needed to keep the position. On He saw sensor failure on SS16 which let him down the pace, however taking advantage of huge margin, he finished with retaining 2nd overall position and made podium finish second time in a row. Starting with refreshed mind, Yanagisawa moved up to 4th on SS10. Moving up to 3rd due to Pedder’s retirement on SS14, he pulled away rivals with steady run and finished in podium position after Herridge. It was impressive result with 2-3 finish by Cusco Racing. From this result, Herridge gained total 10 championship point (8 point from overall position and adding bonus point from day 2). Adding point from last round, now he is leading championship with 21 point. Yanagisawa gained 6 point from this event and standing 5th on the championship currently. |
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| CUSCO RACING crew made impressive 2-3 finish! |
| Next round of APRC, round 3 “Rally of Whangarei(New Zealand) will be held from 7-8 June. CUSCO RACING will enter three cars; Hiroshi Yanagisawa, Dean Herridge and Yuya Sumiyama who had been competing Japanese Rally Championship from CUSCO RACING until last year. CUSCO RACING will tackle international event with three cars for their first time since when the team started to compete globally. |
