Michael Young’s first season in the brand new Cusco Toyota Vitz has got off to a great start in the 2013 Asia Pacific Rally Championship (APRC) at the first round held at the International Rally of Whangarei over the weekend.
It was an event of firsts for the Japanese based team, with Toyota returning to rallying for the first time in a number of years.
"We've done pretty well on our first outing in the Toyota, and there were a lot of people in Japan watching how we got on. We're very happy with the weekend," said Young.
As the only registered New Zealand driver in the APRC championship, Young knew the pressure was on to achieve a solid result on home soil but he did just that bringing home third place in the overall APRC championship by almost five minutes over Sanjay Takale who finished behind Young in fourth.
Young, joined by Australian co-driver Daniel Willson again for the 2013 APRC season, finished third overall in the APRC series registered drivers championship, the first two-wheel-drive APRC registered car and first in APRC’s Junior Cup championship.
The 20-year-old said he was impressed with the performance of the Cusco Toyota Vitz in its first outing and can’t wait to get back in the car at the next round.
“All weekend the car ran faultlessly and I didn’t even have to lift the bonnet!”
The Cusco Toyota Vitz team will now work on some minor set up changes for Young’s next APRC round, Rally Queensland in July.
“They [the team] are planning on making small changes to the motor to get a little bit more power and response for Queensland,” explained Young.
Young and his team now sit third in the overall FIA APRC Drivers Championship, and first in both the FIA APRC Junior Cup and two-wheel-drive APRC rally cup.
The next round for Young and Willson is the International Rally of Queensland, based on the Sunshine Coast and the event travels across 220 kilometres of closed special stages across two days of competition.
Young’s APRC campaign is supported by CUSCO, Toyota Racing Developments, Dunlop and Yoda Rallying.
Alana McIsaac, media manager, Mike Young Motorsport.
M: +64 27 515 7157
E: alana.mcisaac@gmail.com
Michael's 2013 APRC Calendar
Round 1: 18-19 May, International Rally of Whangarei, New Zealand
Round 2: 13-14 July, International Rally of Queensland, Australia
Round 3: 24-25 August, Malaysian Rally, Malaysia
Round 4: 28-29 September, Rally Hokkaido, Japan
Round 5: 02-03 November, China Rally, China
Round 6: 07-08 December, Thailand Rally,(AsiaCup Only), Thailand
