Podium Finish for Mike Young in Japan

New Zealand rally driver Mike Young finished his first all-tarmac event Rally Montre in Japan, 2nd in the FIA Asia Pacific Rally Championship category and 5th overall driving the Cusco Racing team’s Toyota TRD C-HR.

Conditions on the event were challenging with frequent showers and with recent storms in the area, the road surface was often a mixture of broken tarmac, gravel and mud. It did make tyre selection easy though – Dunlop wet weather tyres were the perfect choice.

Reaching the finish on Day 2 Young and the team were elated “Great to finish my first event on tarmac and learnt a lot. It’s a completely different driving style, especially under braking and the complete opposite to gravel, you do have to change your mind-set. It did take me a while to understand the differences and to have the confidence to push-on. That last stage everything started to come together and it showed in the time”.

Rally Montre was also the first time Young and Amy Hudson had worked together but the 21 year old kiwi co-driver quickly adapted to the new partnership and her first international event.

Back at the finish Hudson was ready for some more stages “ That last stage was really good, really enjoyed that one. Everything started to flow, the notes were better and it was dry. A good end to the weekend. It was a challenge with the wet weather, all learning and plenty of positives to take away. I’ve really enjoyed Japan, the fans are awesome, the team’s awesome so definitely want to come back”.

The 2022 Montre Rally was based in Gunma Prefecture and run on 11-12th June. The two-day event had a total of 125 competitive kilometres and was a qualifying round of the 2022 FIA Asia Pacific Rally Championship.

Mike Young is supported by Cusco, Dunlop Tyres, GO Logistics, APSMtv and Würth NZ. Website page Mikeyoung.nz, FaceBook and Instagram.