The 22 year old Kiwi driver who was co-driven by his fellow national Malcolm Read have successfully combined to win the Junior APRC championship in 2013 and 2014 and have been a successful pairing.
EZY Racing who entered the Asia Pacific’s leading motor racing event (conducted by FIA) in 2014, made drastic changes to their international strategy in 2015 by going for an all foreign driver/ co-driver line up with Internationally acclaimed Cusco powering the race car.
Mike who was driving a Production car (Subaru STI) went into rally Queensland at the back of a successful stint in his 4 wheel drive debut in New Zealand where he finished 3rd behind the MRF Skoda’s which are much more powerful, lighter and are purpose built for Rallying.
EZY Racing’s Founder, Shafraz Hamzadeen who was seen in the Queensland Service Park, spoke highly of the young prodigy before the Rally.
“We did a 360 degree change to our strategy in 2015.
We knew that the only way to be a recognized motor racing entity internationally was to fast track the process and we made some key Partnerships.
Mike’s signing up and Cusco’s car are the key results of it. We have been following Mike’s performance during his junior days and were very impressed wth him.
We knew that signing him up early would help both EZY Racing and Mike on a successful path to the future” said Hamzadeen.
Young who started 3rd in the line up on the 18 stage 227KM rally, had a shaky morning when he almost lost control of the car when entering into a fast corner.
“I was a bit lacking in confidence at the start. We had a bit of a moment.
A free corner in to the first stage made the heart beat faster. From there onwards, I was trying to build the confidence and get to driving feel better.
Other than that, it’s been pretty good really.
I was just hard on myself” said Young after completing the 10 stages on Saturday where he was lying 3rd , trailing Rally Leader Gaurav Gill by just over 2 minutes.
Japan’s Cusco Racing who powered Cusco Subaru with some precision engineering and service support were seen during some key changes to the Cusco EZY Racing Subaru during the lunch break on Saturday that helped Young regain his confidence in the second half of first day.
Young who was competing against Indonesia’s Subhan Aksa, a former WRC (World Rally Championship) Production Cup driver, who was driving a Mitsubishi Evolution X in a machine to machine comparison, managed to stay ahead of Aksa in all 18 stages to have a comfortable 3 minute lead over the former WRC driver.
Sunday (Day 2) saw a whole different set of stages where the drivers were seen pushing to newer heights in dry conditions.
Team mates Gaurav Gill and Pontus Tideman who were seen in a ding dong battle for Rally leadership had just 4 seconds splitting each other from the leadership and were seen entertaining the fans with gutsy rally driving.
Young who was leading Aksa comfortably by then was not going to sit back and enjoy the battle between the MRF’s and decided to up his speed to take the competition to the MRF Skoda’s.
Stage 13 saw Mike sandwiching himself between the front runners by beating 2013 APRC Champion Gill by a 100th of a second and finishing 5 seconds shy of Tideman’s stage winning time.
Mikes aggression helped him to position himself perfectly to benefit from the unfortunate retirement of Gill in the last stage of the Rally, to claim the 2nd position.
“It was important that we didn’t take too many risks and be reckless during the rally and we knew we had to be smart and sustain energy throughout.
The Skoda’s were always going to the front runners. However, there was some stiff competition from the rest lead by Subhan (Aksa) and Mark (Pedder).
Therefore we couldn’t afford to make any major mistake as it could wipe off the lead we developed over many stages in just one stage.
We had a bit of a shock when we hit a bird at 180Kmph and then during the last stage we had a puncture.
We decided to drive all the way to the end as it happened, around 2KM’s away from the finish.
We lost some time but had enough of a cushion from Aksa to secure the position” said an elated Young after the Rally.
Cusco Racing, who have been instrumental in developing Young into a successful driver in the pinnacle of Asia Pacific motor racing, were seen doing a magnificent job in gathering the data from Young’s stages and continuously using those to tune the different components of the car.
“This weekend is simply unbelievable for us.
I first need to thank Cusco for providing Mike with an impeccable car and amazing service support.
Having the right car, a good service crew and a good driver/ co driver combination are the essentials of International Rallying and this is precisely what we had this weekend” said Shafraz Hamzadeen after the Rally.
Japan based Cusco who is a leading automotive parts company have been instrumental in providing sturdy performance to many vehicles around the world.
Sundays result in Queensland stood a testimony to Cusco’s historically achievements.
Hamzadeen further went on to comment that he knew that Young always had it in him to challenge the leaders even with a production car.
“We knew that Mike is the most exciting prospect in APRC.
The 2nd placed finish was a very pleasant achievement and we are definitely very excited about this as this is the first time that EZY Racing stood that high in a podium internationally.
However, I take more confidence in the way Mike drove in stage 13 where he split the Skoda’s.
This shows Mike’s true ability as he was in a production car challenging the purpose built rally cars.
We are encouraged by this performance.
We are sure the boys at Cusco would carefully go through the data gathered this weekend and would use it to the teams benefit during the Asian Leg of the Championship” stated Hamzadeen.
Cusco who still have not unleashed the true potential of Young’s car will hope to carefully unleash the performance as Young grows in with confidence in his Cusco EZY Racing Subaru.
More information on EZY Racing’s Australian Rally can be followed on www.fb.com/ezyracing.
