The second round of the China Rally Championship was held at Huairou, Beijing, a sightseeing spot with a beautiful view of a lake. It takes approximately one hour to get there by a car from the city center of Beijing.
　
It was at the end of March, in the venue of the season opener, when the organiser announced that the second round would be run as a tarmac rally. After that announcement, YOKOHAMA rushed the most suitable tarmac rally tires for the event into production and transported some of them by airfreight, hoping for the success of all YOKOHAMA users. The schedule was so tight that the last batch of tires arrived just two days before the start of the rally, but YOKOHAMA managed to finish the preparation in time to supply the tires for all of our users.
　
For this event, YOKOHAMA brought in the purpose-made tarmac rally tires, ADVAN A006T. This type complies with the FIA's regulations for tarmac rallies and has been developed mainly through European tarmac rallies including PWRC events. Plus, much of the technology of the ADVAN A048 is also incorporated in this high performance tire. A048 has an established reputation in the Japanese market where several tire manufacturers compete. YOKOHAMA provided two types of compounds for each size, the S was a standard compound and the SS was for wet surfaces and low temperature ranges.
　
During the event, the Beijing region was unusually hot and the temperature during the day was over 30 ℃, although it got much colder when the sun went down. In the first leg, all YOKOHAMA users ran on the S compound and the top two of both S2 and S1 class were occupied by YOKOHAMA equipped cars. As many drivers cut the unpaved inside of the corners, the road surface was getting more slippery during the leg. Considering such surface conditions and lower temperatures in the early morning, SUBARU Rally Team China put SS compounds on their three cars at the start of Leg 2 in order to reduce the gap with the top two cars in the N4 class. However, soon after the start of Leg 2, the ace of the team, Dean Herridge, drove over the keen-edged stones on the course, resulting in a puncture. As Herridge lost ground, Xu Lang took over the third position of the N4 class.
　
Keeping a good pace until the finish, Lang drove consistently and eventually took third place in the N4 class. As for the China National Cup which only Chinese drivers are eligible, the winner of the cup in the season opener in Shanghai, Lang won again with YOKOHAMA in Beijing.
　
Among other YOKOHAMA users were the Shanghai Volkswagen 333 Racing and the Beijing Youn Chi team which ran Suzuki Swifts and garnered one-two finishes in the S2 class and the S1 class respectively.
　
In addition, a veteran from Hong Kong, Michel Lu, finished in third in the China National Cup, which meant many YOKOHAMA users were successful in this rally.