EZY Racing emerges as new Asia Cup challenger

• Mike Young enters Rally Malaysia as top contender 

EZY Racer Mike Young in the Cockpit of the Cusco EZY Racing SUbaru​

Michael Young​

Mike Youg drives the Cusco EZY Racing car in Rally Queensland

The Japan-based Cusco EZY Racing Team, ably led by 22-year-old three-time Junior Asia Pacific Cup Champion Mike Young, will be throwing down a new challenge at this year’s APRC’s Asia Cup competition when the fourth round of the championship kicks off in Johor Bahru Malaysia this weekend, from 14-16 August. 

Sri Lanka’s very first international motor racing team, EZY Racing, who have formed a strong technical partnership with Japan-based Cusco Racing, will be a force to be reckoned with at this year’s competition when their young Kiwi driving prodigy, who finished with two strong podium finishes in New Zealand and Australia, will ready himself for yet another fantastic display of driving in the most gruelling rally in the Asian circuit. 

The Black and Red Team, who are in just their second year of international motor sports, will be up against some of the region’s best motor racing drivers, including 2013 Asia Pacific Cup Champion, India’s MRF Skoda driver Gaurav Gill. 

EZY Racing, who finished runner-up in their inaugural attempt in the Asia Cup in 2014, have totally transformed themselves into an international motor racing entity this year through their partnership with Young and Cusco, a partnership which has yielded instant results 

Young, who recently took the top spot in the 2015 Elite Motorsport Academy run by Motorsport New Zealand, has been in amazing form in the 2015 edition of Asia Pacific’s most sought-after motor racing championship. 

Driving a Cusco EZY Racing Subaru for the first in his career, Young has performed amazingly well in his first two outings in the 4WD car, which incidentally is driven for the first time by him. Speaking to the media Young stated: “We have been very fortunate to have been able to convert our strong positions during the rally weekends to podium finishes. Malcolm (Read) and I were stoked by our performance in Australia where we initially started off very cautiously and then were able to up our tempo as the rally dried out. We have been competing in Malaysia in the past and know that this is a totally different terrain. The roads through the palm tree plantations are narrow and unforgiving. To make things worse, this is the monsoon season in Malaysia and this can potentially create slippery and deceiving conditions in Malaysia.” 

CUSCO is a Japanese automotive parts company, specialising in car suspension parts. They are most famous for their coilover suspensions, and are a large presence in the Japanese after-market automotive scene both in the Japanese Domestic Market scene and around the globe. 

They have been a dominant force in the Asia Pacific Rally Championship for over a decade and have produced champion drivers including 2014 Asia Cup champion Yuya Sumiyama. With the 2015 season heating up to be another thriller between the two MRF SKODA cars which are purpose built for rallying, Cusco continues to prepare a standard Subaru Impreza WRX car that would give a close battle to the purpose built machines which are over 200 Kg lighter and far more powered than that of the front-running Ukranian car manufacturer. 

EZY Racing, which is a part of Singapore-based EZY Corporation, a diversified company that operates across Asia, have successfully transformed the success of their Sri Lankan motor racing onto the international circuits during a short span of 18 months. 

“We have always looked at motor racing in the same light that we see our businesses. We believe that evolving is the key to success and that’s precisely what we demonstrated at the International Rally circuits,” said EZY Racing’s Founder and CEO Shafraz Hamzadeen. 

“Last year was a steep learning curve for us. I remember when we first came to the Malaysian Rally, which was our very first international venture, we felt like a kid who had stepped into a foreign school. Everything around us was new and foreign. Overall we ended last year with a rich amount of experience from the point from where we started. This year, in comparison, we go in with an air of confidence around us. Both Mike (Young) and Malcolm (Read) have successfully driven in this terrain in the past and are familiar with the surroundings. Cusco, have been preparing vehicles for this terrain for years and have a wealth of data on these conditions. Hopefully we could benefit from this position of strength to have a successful rally in Malaysia,” said Hamzadeen

Young, who is currently positioned third in the Overall Asia Pacific Rally Championship standings, although having competed one rally less than his other competitors in the pacific rounds after opting to sit out of the Rally New Caledonia, goes into the Asian rounds of the championship leading the production cup challenge in his Subaru WRX. 

“We are still finding our feet in the new car. Every rally is a new one for us as we are competing in the 4WD class for the first time. Up until this year we have only competed in the 2WD class in APRC. Therefore it’s going to take us some time to get used to the car in the tricky and trying conditions in Malaysia. The weather forecast doesn’t look bad in Johor Bahru and we are hoping the weather will be kind to us. The last two rallies have given us a lot of confidence in the cockpit. The Cusco guys have done a wonderful job with the car. We saw it in Australia where they did some running adjustments to help the car handle things better after the first service break on the first day. We are hopeful that we can carry our good fortune into the Malaysian Rally as well,” stated the young driver. 

EZY Racing, who have a 150,000-strong international following, will be providing regular updates on Mike Young’s Asia Cup Challenge through their Facebook fan page www.fb.com/ezyracing.