Cusco Racing Plans for 2011
Our partners, Carrosser Co. Ltd, the company behind the Cusco brand. have announced the motorsport activity plan of Cusco Racing, the works team of the Japanese motorsport manufacturer, in 2011. The team returns to the FIA Asia-Pacific Rally Championship (APRC) as the team’s main target, but additionally Japanese Rally Championship (JRC) as series entrant too.
As already the team has announced to use Proton Satria Neo first time, 2010 Asia Cup winning team will tackle both APRC and Asia Cup using Group N4 machine, also JRC which meant the team will cover wide range of category from top level to entry level as team is seeking more appeal to motor sport or media globally.
Detail of Plans and Crew Line-up
FIA Asia-Pacific Rally Championship
CUSCO RACING World Rally Team
Yuya Sumiyama / Naoki Kase: Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X
3 rounds on Asia Cup: Malaysia, Japan, China
Rifat Sungkar / Scott Beckwith: Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X
Full of 6 round on APRC and 3 round of Asia cup
Cody Crocker / TBA: Subaru Impreza WRX STi
2 round on Pacific cup: Australia and New Zealand (planning at the moment)
CUSCO PROTON Junior Team
Akira Bamba / TBA: Proton Satria Neo
4 rounds on APRC Junior Trophy: Malaysia, Australia, New Zealand and Japan
TBA (Malaysian crew): Proton Satria Neo
5 rounds on APRC: Malaysia, Australia, New Caledonia, New Zealand and Japan (planning at the moment)
Japanese Rally Championship
CUSCO RACING
Hiroshi Yanagisawa / Yoshimasa Nakahara: Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X
6 round on JRC: Round 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7
Shuhei Muta / Takahiro Yasui: Proton Satria Neo
5 round on JRC: Round 2, 3, 4, 6, 7
CUSCO RACING started fully competing to APRC in 2006. Since then the team has been gaining great achievements, including the Pacific Cup in 2008 (driver Dean Heridge), and also the Asia-Cup last year (driver Yuya Sumiyama). Additionally the team made superb result constantly to build firm evaluation within the series.
With the JRC, the team has been involved with the series since the establishment of their company, Carrosser Co. Ltd. and has been producing a number of Japanese champions. The team will fully join the series for the first time since 2007.
Event Calendar
2011 FIA Asia-Pacific Rally Championship
Round 1: 1-3 April Malaysian Rally (also Asia Cup, Junior Trophy)
Round 2: 13-15 May Rally Queensland (Australia: also Pacific Cup, Junior Trophy)
Round 3: 17-19 June Rallye de Nouvelle Caledonia (also Pacific Cup)
Round 4: 15-17 July International Rally of Whangarei (New Zealand: also Pacific Cup, Junior Trophy)
Round 5: 30 Sep-2 Oct Rally Hokkaido (Japan: also Asia-Cup, Junior Trophy)
Round 6: 4-6 Nov China Rally (also Asia-Cup)
2011 Japanese Rally Championship
Round 1: 8-10 Apr Tour de Kyushu(Saga:Tarmac)
Round 2: 29 Apr-1 May Kuma-Kogen Rally(Ehime: Gravel)
Round 3: 20-22 May Himuka Rally(Miyazaki: Gravel)
Round 4: 10-12 June MSCC Tokyo Rally(Fukushima: Gravel)
Round 5: 8-10 July M.C.S.C.Highland Masters(Gifu: Tarmac)
Round 6: 2-4 Sep Ark Rally(Hokkaido: Gravel)
Round 7: 30 Sep-2 Oct Rally Hokkaido(Gravel, also APRC)
Round 8: 21-23 Oct Shinshiro Rally (Aichi: Tarmac)
Driver Profiles
Hiroshi Yanagisawa
Born: 10 Nov 1969
Nationality: Japanese
Rally debut: 1991
1997: started competition at Japanese Rally Championship from Carrosser
2004: started competition in overseas
2006: started APRC full season
2007, 2009: FIA seeded
Yuya Sumiyama
Born: 21 Aug 1976
Nationality: Japanese
1996: started competition at Dirt-trial series. 12 wins, Japanese title two times until 2001
2002: started competition in Japanese Rally Championship
2010: win APRC Asia-cup
Akira Bamba
Born: 22 March 1986
Nationality: Japanese
Rally début: 2006 at Rally New Zealand(WRC)
2010: 2 class wins at APRC in Suzuki Swift through CUSCO RACING’s young driver development project
Shuhei Muta
Born: 25 Sep 1985
Nationality: Japanese
2004: competing Japanese Kart series
2008: 2nd in Kyushu-region champion series
2010: competing Japanese Rally Championship
Rifat Sungkar
Born: 22 Oct 1978
Nationality: Indonesian
1998-2002: Indonesian Rally Sprint champion
2010: 2nd in APRC
Cody Crocker
Born: 18 Oct 1971
Nationality: Australian
2003-2005: Australian Rally Champion
2006-2009: APRC champion