One of the top categories in the Chinese motor sports scene, the Chinese Rally Championship (CRC) rolled out its new season at Shanghai, the fastest growing city in the country.
　
In the CRC, there are several classes of competing cars. Two representative classes are the N4 which is the most significant class and contended by four-wheel-drive 2000cc turbo charged engines with no restriction on the nationality of drivers, and the S2 class where only Chinese-made cars with 1600cc NA engine and Chinese drivers are eligible. Many important teams and drivers use YOKOHAMA tires in both classes.
　
In the N4 class where many top level foreign drivers participate, Chinese driver, Xu Long who compares favourably with strong competitors, is a YOKOHAMA user. And the Subaru Rally Team which runs three cars including the one for Japanese driver, Takuma Kamata, also chooses YOKOHAMA in this rally series. Turning to the S2 class, a team backed by Shanghai Volkswagen, the 333 Racing continues to use YOKOHAMA tires for their Polos. In addition, the Yiqi Volkswagen team, which is the reigning champion, has joined the YOKOHAMA camp with their Golfs.
　
At 3 p.m. on Friday, the ceremonial start took place beside the watering place in Jin Shan, south-east of Shanghai city. In the crowded venue with many spectators, the first starter was Han Han, who is a very popular and young author. He is actually a very good driver too, and in his home town of Jin Shan, spectators were so excited that the start of the event was sizzling hot.
　
On Saturday's Leg 1, it rained off and on with intermittent torrential rain. As this rally was run on a mixed surface of gravel and tarmac, it turned to be an extremely difficult condition where high speed was required on very slippery surfaces. YOKOHAMA users battled that situation by using A036 tires for very hard surface and A035 tires for general gravel surface with the choice of soft or medium compounds.
　
Xu Long in the N4 class showed a good performance and marked the fastest time in the SS3. He wouldn't take a backseat to any European rivals with his superb driving, however, he made several small mistakes on the slippery surface in the second half of Leg 1 and finished the day in second. Kamata driving for the Subaru Rally Team also did a course off in Leg 1 but resumed with no damage to his car.
　
In the S2 class, two Volkswagen teams held a fierce battle and it became a duel between Wang Rui driving Shanghai VW 333 Racing's Polo and Ren Zhi Guo in Yiqi VW's Golf. The former led the class despite losing his exhaust muffler, while the latter suffered from punching a hole in his oil sump, but still he wouldn't give up to chase.
　
Although it stopped raining on Sunday morning, there was dense fog. With the slippery surface due to the rain on Saturday, poor visibility tortured competitors and, at the finish, 31 cars had to retire, which meant that the half of the field failed to finish this very tough rally. There was no major upset in the upper echelon on Sunday, most drivers finished in the same position as they did in Leg 1. Xu Long got the second place in the N4 class which was the highest position for a Chinese driver. Kamata in a Subaru Impreza was sixth. In the S2 class, Wang Rui in a Polo won and Ren Zhi Guo in a Golf finished in second. Another YOKOHAMA user, the popular author and 333 Racing's driver, Han Han came in third in the class, which completed YOKOHAMA's domination of the S2 class podium.
　
In this first event of its 2007 motor sports activity in China, YOKOHAMA successfully displayed the performance and superiority of its products..