As its name shows, the FIA Asia Pacific Rally Championship (APRC) tours around the Asia-Pacific basin. The series was inaugurated in 1988 and had become the FIA's regional championship which is second to the world championship in status, attracting a lot of strong competitors.

The 2011 season begins with the Malaysian Rally which is to be held from March 1st to 3rd. Then, after visiting Australia, New Caledonia and New Zealand ー the countries in the southern hemisphere, it turns to Asia to come to Japan for the Rally Hokkaido, from September 30th to October 2nd, and concludes the battle for the title in China. The championship calendar consists of six rounds.

Besides the full championship, there are two area cups, the Asia Cup and the Pacific Cup, which only counts the rounds in the respective areas. The glorious winner of Asia Cup in 2010 was the pair of Yuya Sumiyama/Naoki Kase, entered by CUSCO Racing World Rally Team from Japan.

In 2011, the CUSCO team continues its participation in APRC with two Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution Xs driven by Sumiyama and Rifat Sungkar, and a Subaru Impreza WRC STI for Cody Crocker. The Japanese driver takes part in three rounds in Asia to defend his Asia Cup title. Sungkar from Indonesia does the full championship, while Crocker competes only in Australian and New Zealand rounds, according to the team's announcement in late January.

In addition, the Junior Trophy is newly launched this year for the two wheel drive cars with 1.6 liter normally-aspirated engines. Only young drivers under 29 year old at January 1st, 2011, are eligible for this cup and it counts four rounds, Malaysia, Australia, New Zealand and Japan. To tackle this title, CUSCO Racing World Rally Team runs a Proton Satria Neo for Akira Banba. The expectation for the young Japanese's good showing is already high.

Every round is totally different and its stages have unique characteristics. This fact makes APRC attractive and challenging.

Basically, the distance of each stage is much longer and its average speed is higher than those of Japanese domestic events. The conditions of stage surfaces varies a lot from hard gravel to muddy road, therefore, the tires must have very high level of performance.

From Yokohama's product range, ADVAN A053, an export model of gravel rally tire, shall perform well in this championship. Its prototype won the Rally Hokkaido in 2006 and the Cyprus Rally which was renowned for its rough road and Sumiyama relied on them in the last year's Asia Cup on his way to secure the title.

A053 meets or exceeds all requirements for a gravel rally tire, such as basic grip, durability or robustness against half-buried rocks, and accepts additional grooving to adapt to the surface conditions as well.