If the China Rally was going to be unforgivable, a power steering malfunction pilled on the misery but a resilient and resourceful Mike Young rode with gusto to earn Cusco EZY Racing a podium finish.
After two days of driving along a gruelling track EZY’s Mike Young battled to a podium finish behind Japan’s Hitoshi Takayama and MRF’s Pontus Tidemand.
The Cusco EZY Racing Team, who entered the Final Leg of the FIA Asia Pacific Championship with hopes of winning the Asia Cup, started the Rally off in a positive fashion when Young finished the Spectator Stage on Day 1 within 5 seconds of MRF Skoda Champion drive Pontus Tidemand.
Even after going the rest of the day without power steering the Cusco EZY Racing Subaru Young managed to keep-up pace with race leader Pontus Tidemand but unfortunately his luck ran out and was forced off a narrow-tight road and toppled in the 7th and final Special Stage of day one.
“We had no power steering all day and the last stage was quite slippery. On a straight piece of road the car started to go left and I couldn’t turn the wheel, we went up bank and over we went. All in all we lost 22 minutes,” a dejected Young added after two flat tyres from the accident cost them valuable minutes.
With the regulations only allowing the team to attend and fix the power steering issue at the end of the day’s 45 minute service break, Mike Young had to summon the best in him to face the toughest test of his relatively young career. Young was boosted by the fact that Gaurav Gill, who is in second position in the APRC retired in stage 4 of day one.
“It’s very difficult to drive the car in tight sections where certain stages are over 25 minutes without power steering. It drains the concentration because I had to eternally overwork myself. The fog, rain and lack of visibility also didn’t help the cause. So I had to dig deep and make sure that I brought the car to the first service to see if the problem could be fixed. It is very tiring and it takes its toll on you. As a result we lost a lot of ground against Takayama who was our main competitor for the Asia Cup” mentioned Young.
EZY Racing’s performance and technical partners, Cusco did an amazing job in ensuring that they fixed almost all the problems within the short time frame and get the car race ready but were penalized 3.40 minutes which left him lagging behind Tidemand by 40.04 minutes and 31.25 minutes behind his closest rival for the Asia Cup, Takayama.
The second day brought good news for Young and Reed as R.Mason withdrew from the race ensuring a podium finish and no hiccups for the duo which saw them complete the rally as one of just three to do so.
Young continued to battle on Day 2 as well with power steering issues and despite the fact that it slowed him down; Young was still able to beat Asia Championship leader Takayama in 3 of the 6 Special Stages on Day 2.
Unfortunately, the time lost during the topple on Day 1 proved to be the decisive factor as Young despite his heroics on the final day, finished 3rd in the Chinese Rally and 2nd in the Asia Cup Category.
Commenting after the rally Mike Young said, “I am really happy. We got into the place we wanted to be at the start. We have got points in all classes. We also won the production cup this year. It has been one of the most challenging weekend here-lots of car trouble and the roll-over yesterday. But the toughest thing has been to drive without power all weekend and it has been pretty tough on the body.”
“I gave my absolute best. We knew the retirement in Malaysia was going to be a tough one to catch up. We needed luck on our side. We did have it but i guess Takayama had it more than us. At the end of the day he drove exceptionally well to complete all the rallies.” Young commented the Production Cup Champion.
“This definitely was more challenging than Japan for us which was the toughest rally till we experienced this,” said Young.
With the Production Cup already in the bag, Young who is in second place at the moment in the Asia Cup 2015 will get one last crack at the Championship against Hitoshi Takayama.
