RALLY HOKKAIDO

Archive for the ‘Spectator’ Category

Scrutineering in Progress

At Super Pit Chuo-ten (Central Branch), Scrutineering is in progress while crews are busy doing recce on special stages. Scrutineers are examining each of the rally car which was brought by its mechanic, making sure every rally cars comply rally regulations as well as road traffic laws and regulations.

Cusco TRD Vitz on testing (by APRC TV)

APRC TV has released a video clip of the testing of Cusco TRD Toyota Vitz, with Mike Young behind its steering wheel.

Food booths available as usual at Rikubetsu

The town of Rikubetsu will be a core of LEG 1B on 15th September (Sat), and as many of you may know, there will be food stands available next to the Service Parks, where you can enjoy tasty bites.
And you may ask if they are available as usual this year, due to the recent power outage after the earthquake.
Please relax, those stalls will be available a usual.
We also checked with Seico Mart – they say although the quantity they can supply may be somewhat less than usual, they will try to provide as much as food as possible.
Rikubetsu is all right as usual, and your visit there to enjoy your time will be a great help to the people in Rikubetsu – so please come over and enjoy the rally!

* Food booths in Kita Aikoku Service Park are also available as usual, looking forward to serving you .

Documentation and Admin Check

Documentation and Administrative Check was conducted at Rally HQ today, and many competitors checked in with Rally Hokkaido. Some are familiar, while we do see new faces. It is great that Kenneth Koh, who competed Rally Hokkaido 2011 as a driver, came back to Hokkaido as a co-driver. We are happy to see Mike Young, who experienced the mega-scale earthquake on his vacation in Hokkaido, is fine and showing his usual smile.
All the teams, We wish you all the best!

K’s WRT competes Rally Hokkaido with 4 cars

K’s World Rally Team competes Rally Hokkaido with 4 cars – 3 entry to international/Japan Super Rally, and 1 entry to open class. 2 of them, Car#17, Toshio Inomata on TOYOTA GT86 and Car#19, Kosuke Takashino on PEUGEOT 208 GTi are competing hard to win the 2WD class of JSR, where Takashino is leading with thin margin of 2 points. APRC competitor Abdul Kaathir Mustafa is on SUZUKI Swift Sport as Car#12, under support of the KWRT. Kimito Kondo joins the team from the host town of this rally, Obihiro, bearing the very last car# of 99 as an open class competitor. KWRT, which is rich in wide range of experience from WRC and international rallies to local ones, and its drivers have strong presence in Rally Hokkaido 2018, and definitely one of the cars you should not miss.

Cusco conducted 2-day testing

Cusco conducted 2 day testing under sunny sky of Tokachi. Skoda Fabia R5 joined their fleet Toyota Vitz 4WD, Subaru WRX and Citroen DS3 from the port of Tomakomai to complete testing session.

3 cars from Street Life World Rally Team

Street Life World Rally Team, which has been actively participated international rallies since 1991, is coming back to Hokkaido with 3 cars. Their ace driver, Eiichi Iwashita behind the steering wheel of famous orange Lancer Evo, aims to win the rally. Together with Iwashita, Masaki Yamnada and Takashi Mori arrived at Obihiro and preparing for the rally with their co-drivers and mechanics.
The team manager, Kazuo Yoneyama says:
”Eiichi aims to win the victory. We expected his active driving and the best result. Yamada and Mori aim to complete the rally without trouble. We also aim to win the team award too.”

Their two orange Mitsubishi Evo and a blue Subaru Impreza WRX will bring us big excitement in Rally Hokkaido 2018, so stay tuned!

Behind the Scene

Due to the numbers of stages as well as their length, Rally Hokkaido requires more equipment than any other rallies held in Japan. Requirement of high standard medical equipment for FIA rallies makes it even more.

Thus, it is quite important to prepare the equipment, check each of them, and soft them for each of the stages.

Although it is still a weekday, many of our staffs are working hard to complete the task.

Now I see a sweeper car here – is it also ready now?

Mike Young aiming high, in his team’s home event

Mike Young, Car#2 on Cusco’s Toyota Vitz 4WD, expressed his will to show the best of his car on the home event for both of his team (Cusco) and his car (Toyota), in his press release issued today.

“This year I really want to show the potential of the Cusco TRD Vitz, we are at the stage now where I think we can get a good result and performance. I’m not saying I’ll go flat out but I definitely want to do well for myself, my team Cusco Racing and TRD. It’s their home event and an important rally for them.”

Each of APRC round has its own unique character, and Rally Hokkaido’s one is narrow and fast gravel with deep rut, sometimes very tough and demanding for cars. And last year, KUNNEYWA stage spoiled the day of the many cars. Mike sees Kunneywa (SS4/8) will be key stage for 2018 as well, while his his favorite stage is YAM WAKKA (SS3/6).

“The key stage will be Kunneywa. It’s one of the longest stages of the rally, super-fast and narrow but also rough. Last year many cars retired on this stage and it will be important to get a good stage time as it will set me up for the rest of the rally. It also has a very big bridge jump but the stage that I look forward to the most is Yam Wakka, its super twisty but fast at the same time. I’m glad its back in the rally this year.”

Both of the two stages will be drivn on Leg 1B on Saturday 15th, together with famous RIKUBETSU LONG stage(SS2/5/7), whose right turn after a water splash swallwed 6 of the rally cars including Mike’s Proton Satria, back in 2011.

While the official result for Round 1 of the APRC this year (Whangarei) was DNF with mechiancal probem, Mike showed speed next to Hayden Paddon on the first 3 stages. And in the previous round, Malaysia, he achieved 2nd APRC. Then the machine received major rebuild in its base in Gunnma prior to the event, Mike and his machine seems to be ready to move 1 position upward.

Well, it seems we cannot miss how the rally goes on Leg 1B on thsi coming Saturday !

History of Rally Hokkaido, on APRC History (#4)

Now, we will look back to the Rally Hokkaido in 2009. Just like the years before, Cody Crocker, Katsu Taguchi and Hiroshi Yanagisawa were competing hard to win the rally, but in addition to them, Emma Glimour from NZ and Gaurav Gill from India, ex-regular of Rally Hokkaido competing WRC now, joined the fight to the victory. Who won the fight that year?

« Older Entries Newer Entries »

Language