Young gives EZY Racing maiden international championship 

• Finishes second ranked racing team in Asia Pacific

Podium for APRC Rally China 

Cusco EZY Racing team on the podium ​

EZY Racer Mike Young back in Action on Day 2 after toppling the car the previous day ​

EZY Racer Mike Young in action ​

EZY Racer Mike Young sideways ​

EZY Racers Mike and Malcolm receiving their trophy ​

EZY Racers Mike Young and Malcom Read 

EZY Racing, the first-ever Sri Lankan-based motor racing team to compete internationally in an FIA accredited championship were given their very first international championship in just their second year in International Motor Sports, when their driving prodigy Mike Young secured the FIA Production Cup for 2015 for the Cusco EZY Racing Subaru Team in what was the most gruelling and challenging rally the Sri Lankan Motor Racing team ever had to compete in.

The 22-year-old Kiwi Driver who has provided glory for the Sri Lankan-based team in their international journey, experienced the toughest rally in his four years of international rallying when he experienced a multitude of challenges which involved heavy rain, non visibility, power steering problems that limited his driving capabilities and a topple that occurred due to the lack of power steering, to overcome them and complete the rally to finish third in the Asia Pacific Rally Championship, Chinese Leg and second in Asia Cup Category of the Rally.

 “We are very proud of our team’s achievement,» said the jubilant founder of EZY Racing Shafraz Hamzadeen. Hamzadeen was forced to rethink his approach to international motor sports after realising the widening gap between the highest standards of Sri Lankan Motor Racing to the average standards of international motor racing.

«I have always been a believer of focusing on the basics. It’s the ability to do the basics very well that has provided us our very first championship internationally. It’s the commitment of every single aspect of this team be it in Colombo or Japan that helped us achieve this success in the most sustainable manner,” said a grateful CEO of EZY Racing.

With five podium finishes in six races, Young was able to give the Cusco EZY Racing team an early advantage in the Production Cup. «It’s a long championship when you look back. Starting in April and going all the way to December is a long time. Strategically, we decided against running New Caledonia. That gave us a disadvantage as we were one rally less for the APRC Championship. We knew it was going to be an impossible task to beat both the MRF Skoda cars which were far superior to our car. Therefore, we took the risk of competing one rally less and fighting for the runner up position in the Asia Pacific Rally Championship. Eight months later, it seems we made the wise choice as we finished second in the Asia Pacific Rally Championship,» said Young.

The 22-year-old finished second best to Pontus Tidemand of the MRF Skoda team and managed to beat 2013 APRC Champion Gaurav Gill in the championship. “It’s a great feeling to have been able to give EZY Racing their first championship. I have really enjoyed this season although it has been a tough one for us ever since we came into the Asian rounds. We had great success in the Pacific Rounds. However, the Asian rounds turned out to be far more challenging and harder on the car than we anticipated. We managed to get the best out of what we had and am very pleased about it,” commented the New Zealand driver.

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 amazing fashion when Young finished the spectator stage on day one within five seconds of MRF Skoda’s Tidemand. Unfortunately, on day two they were given a rude shock when Young was forced to manoeuvre the Cusco EZY Racing Subaru with no power steering in the narrow and tight concrete to gravel stages which saw the death of a 21-year-old driver in the 2014 edition. Although the 2015 Rally did not see any human casualties, the first day saw the end of the rally for many drivers as they succumbed to the gruelling nature of the rally.

«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. Unfortunately, I had to drive the whole of the first day without power steering which made it 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,» said Young after the completion of the first day. 

Young who was contending for the FIA Asia Cup Championship had to shift himself into Plan B midway through the first day when he realised that his team will only be able to fix the car›s power steering related issue during the end of the day›s 45 minute service break.

«We tried to bring the car home and not lose too much of time to Takayama. When we realised that Gaurav had toppled and was out of the rally, we knew we had to hang in there no matter how hard it was to run without the power steering. Unfortunately in the last stage of the day, we toppled the car. It was one of the slowest topples as the lack of power steering made it impossible to turn into a corner in time. Fortunately, Malcolm was able to get the help of a few Chinese policemen who were around to turn the car back up for us to restart. Unfortunately, we had two flat tyres to change and that lost us over 25 minutes to the leader,» Young said.

With the rally regulations allowing only 45 minutes at the end of day one to resuscitate the car, and the team having to get penalised for every additional minute beyond the stipulated time, 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.

«I am simply amazed by the way Cusco managed to the get the car into a race-ready condition within 45 minutes. We had to get Mike into day two to have any chance of keeping our championship hopes alive. We knew the car wasn›t at its best because there is only so much you could do within 45 minutes. Considering the tight time frame we knew we would have potential power steering issues on the second day as well,» said Hamzadeen. Young continued to battle on day three as well with power steering issues and despite the lack of power steering which considerably slowed him down, Young was still able to beat championship leader Takayama in three of the six super special stages on day two. Unfortunately, the time lost during the topple on day two proved to be the decisive factor as Young despite his heroics on the final day, finished third in the rally and second in the Asia Cup category in the Chinese Rally. Japanese Driver Takayama who gained an advantage over Young in Malaysia where the EZY Racer did not complete the rally having retired early on day one, was able to drive that advantage to a championship leading position.

«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,» commented the Production Cup Champion.

With Mike’s phenomenal performance, EZY Racing completed their second year in international motor sports on a high. «Last year, we knew we were not up there. We had to overcome the novelty of international circuits quickly and then settle into a defensive strategy. This year has been very different. With Mike and Cusco, we went out on the offensive from the first rally in New Zealand. We have had a phenomenal season. We never would have been able to do this without Cusco who have continuously pushed to give us an amazing car. Mike’s determination to give us the best finish speaks volumes of this little man with a big heart,» said EZY Racing›s founder, while reflecting on his team’s performance during the year.

The Asia Cup has one final round to be completed in India, which if competed would give Mike a chance of winning the Asia Cup for his new team. With over 300,000 fans from across Asia, EZY Racing will be looking to end the 2015 racing calendar on a strong footing.