The final round of APRC "China Rally Longyou"
| After titanic battle with competitive speed to APRC king, Yanagi finished
as runner up third time in a row! |
 |
| The final round of 2008 FIA Asia-Pacific Rally Championship, round seven,
“China Rally Longyou” was held from 7-9 November at around Longyou, 400km
from Shanghai, the largest city of China. This is third year to host Chinese round of APRC for Longyou. It’s important event for Cusco racing’s ace Hiroshi Yanagisawa to chasing title of inaugural FIA Asia cup. It will be event tough fight as his rival is Cody Crocker who just secured third time APRC title. All eyes are focused to the battle between both drivers. Meanwhile, for Yuya Sumiyama who has been tackling first season to compete Asia events of APRC which is first international challenge for him, this Longyou event is also first taste for him. As he has been missing to complete every event this season so far, he got strict team order to make finish with gaining valuable experience. Road in Longyou is just twisty as the average speed is only around 50km/h which may give machine extra stress. For condition of those roads, Sumiyama smiled bitterly with commenting “I was so busy for handling which I’ve not done for long time!” Additionally Sumiyama used rental 2 wheel drive car for recce and had stuck many times on muddy road. It didn’t accept him to make proper pace not which put him in a tight squeeze. Due to this situation with running every stages three times, Sumiyama made his tactics to make cautious approach and then make pace up from second loop while saving speed at necessary point. In other hand, there is no excuse unless to make maximum push for Yanagisawa for chasing Asia cup title. He will just push from the start. The event was kicked off on Friday with ceremonial start following short Super SS. Yanagisawa made promising start with getting stage victory of this opening stage. Sumiyama followed with sixth fastest time. The proper stage was started from following day. On opening stage of Saturday competition, SS2, Yanagisawa again set fastest time which was 1.6 sec quicker than Crocker which put big pressure to the APRC king. Crocker had transmission trouble however marked top time with his stable driving. Eventually Yanagisawa gained four stage wins while Crocker gained three of total 10 stages of the day(one of stage was cancelled). Yanagisawa finished day1 as rally leader with over 1 minute 20 seconds advantage to Crocker. Cusco Racing’s mechanic swapped to fresh parts as much as possible to make machine perfect condition for serious battle on next day. Meanwhile Sumiyama was struggling with varied narrow and extremely up-downed Chinese road which he’s never experienced. However he showed consistent drive and finished the first day in fourth position. Finally the day to decide was came. Now grueling battle between Yanagisawa and Crocker was begun. The route of day 2 was three loops of two stages. Rally leader Yanagisawa was given first order to running stage which meant to sweeping gravel on the surface. Croker made hard charge on two loops in the morning as narrowed the gap 15-20 seconds per stage. And what’s more Yanagisawa hit the rock on SS13 and bend lower arm. Also driving with damaged arm caused bent tie-rod on following stage which cost to loosing huge time and arrowed Crocker to narrow the gap. The battle had finale on two stages of final loop after 20min service. The first stage, SS15, Crocker set fastest time, but Yanagisawa also marked only 0.7 slower than him. However, with huge pressure of impending gaining Asia cup title and with hard charge from Crocker, Yanagisawa made regrettable hit with rock on final stage. Moreover he stuck on ditch and drove 300m with staying in the ditch which cost 24 seconds to loosing everything. This time loss handed the victory to Crocker. However he maintained 2nd position and complete the rally. He’s been made top result consistently this season as finishing within podium spot four times including three times of runner-up and finishing in third on APRC standings. Also he has been showing remarkable development to perform competitive speed among strong competitors and make big pressure them. It’s really productive season for Yanagisawa. Meanwhile Sumiyama also showed conservative driving and set top 8 time consistently while many of drivers faced troubles. Sumiyama finished this event in 6th which is first completing an event this season. On its first season to competing international series, he has been shocked with vary of condition on each country which the event of the series was held, however this gave him many of valuable experience. This season is also reasonable year for Sumiyama, too. |
 |
 |
 |
Hiroshi Yanagisawa “Again, this is regrettable result with just close, but Cody was just quick. I was pressured much even I had several trouble. It decided everything. However, in term of speed, my time was quite competitive to Cody on day1, and also I made close battle with Crocker who charged with maximum attack. I’ve got something to make good time. Now I can see how much should I push and I understand how Cody is great because his performance is consistent event push so much hard. The result of this time was disappointed, but also I gained a lot from this rally. This season, we made a lot of progress with machine, team and driver. So I will keep ultimate cerebration for next season!” |
 |
Yuya Sumiyama “This is first finishing in last a year. Purely I felt that rally is just difficult. I’ve competed Japanese championship for 5-6 years and I became competitive driver in the series, but international rally is completely different. It’s feeling like backing to be rookie. On this China as well, it’s the first experience with really narrow and big gap of altitude which I’ve never seen before in Japan. The only way to know them is just drive, and now I experienced them, so can use for the future. It’s been tough season with shocking vary of condition on each country, but I can be accustomed. I just can to wait and see, as rushing can not help anything, so thinking how use this experience is next task for me.” |
 |
 |
| On the opening stage after ceremonial start, Sumiyama set conservative 6th fastest time. | Yanagi cleared jumping spot on SS7. |
 |
 |
| Final service of day 1. Team swapped many of parts including transmission as preparing gruelling battle with Cody on day 2. | Due to bad weather, there were so much mad on the road which gave extra
work for mechanics. |
 |
 |
| Yanagi gave his feedbacks to tyre manufacturer. Those comment will may make further development. | Sumiyama made big water splash on SS4. |
 |
 |
| Stage times were written by hand in board. #2. Yanagisawa set fastest time on SS9! | During mid of close battle, Yanagi hit his machine and bent tie-rod on SS13. |
 |
 |
| Stage of SS13 showed big number of spectators every year. Yuya showed his performance on first appearance. | Yanagisawa and co-driver Nakahara tried repair of bent tie rod after SS13. |
 |
 |
| It’s shame but productive result. Team director express his thanks to team’s ace after battling under huge pressure. | Dean Herridge who was team mate on first half of season won Chinese championship category. Both drivers celebrate effort each other. |
