Michael Young has delivered his promise of securing a finish at Rally Toya, a round of the Japanese Rally Championship (JRC), where he was invited to compete with his Cusco team.
Piloting a Cusco-prepared Subaru Impreza, Young and local co-driver Takahiro Yasui overcame multiple challenges throughout the two day event to finish in sixth place after holding third for most of the rally.
At the rally finish, Young said: “It was a tough rally, that’s for sure, though I’m really happy to finish. Yasui-san and I worked well together all weekend and we showed some good speed over the weekend, and even won a stage.”
“We were having a pretty good run until we had some engine troubles which cost us a few minutes. It basically stalled under heavy braking and was then really hard to start again. Not long after that we had an incorrect note which also cost us a bit of time, but luckily not too much. To finish things off, the water splash caused issues too. The car was down on power from there [water splash] until the finish,” explained Young.
The 23-year-old is now hopeful to return to Japan to compete in more JRC rallies over the coming months and said he thoroughly enjoyed the rally.
“Cusco has asked me if I’d like to come back and obviously, I would love to!” said Young, “They [Cusco] looked after me and I really enjoy rallying with them. Plus rallying in Japan is simply awesome and I love it.”
The next rally on Young’s calendar will be in Europe in a few short weeks. A full announcement about his European adventure is due in the coming days.
Photos: Naoki Kobayashi
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