The third round of the 2010 All Japan Rally Championships (JRC) “RALLY HOKKAIDO” was held from May 21^st to 23^rd in Obihiro, Hokkaido. This gravel round was also the second round of the Asia Pacific Rally Championship and it is the longest rally in the JRC calendar, covering a total 230.87km.

 

JN4 Class

In the 1^st and 2^nd rounds of this season, Ishida had a lot of bad luck, suffering from vehicle problems and retirements. After damaging his engine in the last round, he worked hard to get his car running again, but was unable to completely set up the engine in time. He started the rally trying to find the right set up and had some minor trouble, but had no problem finding his pace and set 5 top times to finish the rally in 2^nd overall position.

 

JN3 Class

After winning the opening round and skipping the second, Shinkai was ready to battle it out again. He drove steadily during Day1 and with some of the top runners retiring from vehicle trouble he was able to finish in 3^rd position. Up until this point everything was going according to plan but disaster struck on the first stage of Day 2 when he was forced to retire from the rally due to transmission trouble.

 

Asia Pacific Rally Championship

Taguchi finished this rally last year in 6^th position and he was looking to improve on his performance but unfortunately luck was not on his side. He suffered from a puncture during the second stage of the rally and was forced to make a tire change during the stage. The huge loss in time dropped him down the order to 25^th position. From this point on, he drove fast but steadily constantly finishing within the top ten and at the end of the rally he made his way up the order to finish in 7^th position.

 

Look forward to more action from all TEIN users in the next JRC round, “2010 Kuma Kogen Rally” held between June 12^th to 13^th in Ehime prefecture.