The Intercontinental Rally Challenge has entered its sixth season since the foundation of the series in 2007 - after holding some pilot events in the year before. The 2012 season had already started in February with Rallye Acores, a gravel event in Azores, Portugal, and each class has hotly been fought even in the early stage of the 13 round series.

The fourth round was Tour de Corse, one of the legendary tarmac rallies in Europe, that was held on 10-12 May. Toshi Arai from Japan entered this event, driving a Subaru WRX STI R4 equipped with the ADVAN rally tires.

As its name shows, the world famous classic rally has been held in the island of Corsica, which is in the Mediterranean and belongs to France. It was inaugurated in 1956 and had been one of the World Rally Championship events for decades. However, after having been dropped from the WRC calendar, it has become a popular fixture of IRC in recent years. This year, the 55th Tour de Corse covered a large part of the island as its traditional route did. Day 1 was based in Ajaccio, the largest city of the island, Day 2 was run around Corte in the central part, and then the rally finished in Bastia to the north.

Arai, who won the Production Cup champion of IRC in 2011 with a Subaru WRX STI R4, made a pretty good start. For his second year of the series, he had moved to Tomi Makinen Racing from Stohl Racing which ran his car last year. Even though he drove the same five door version of a WRX STI R4, the car was newly prepared by the ex-world rally champion's eponymous team and he didn't have an opportunity to try it before this event. With Dale Moscatt staying in his co-driver seat from last year, however, Arai clocked some impressive stage times during the shake down runs on Wednesday and, building on the momentum, his speed was remarkable throughout the mountain stages around Ajaccio on Day 1.

Using the medium compound ADVAN A006T tarmac rally tires, Arai was the third fastest in the Production Cup class and 21st overall in the first special stage, Penitencier Coti-Agosta plage (25.89km). Then he struggled a little because the tires wore quickly due to the abrasive road surface and had to settle for the fourth in the class, 22nd overall, in SS2 Gare de Carbuccia-Tavera (16.89km). But he finished the next stage, Sarrola-Plage de Liamone (26.7km) which was the last of Day 1, in third in the class, 19th overall, and that was the position in which he ended the first day.

After displaying consistent performance with a somewhat unfamiliar car, the Japanese driver had to face with some difficulty on Day 2's mountainous stages around Corte. While he chose the soft compound tires for the morning loop, the surface temperature rose higher than predicted, so he couldn't do any better than finishing fourth in the class in the first stage of the day, Le Fangu-ND de la Serra (27.53km). His uphill fight continued and he ended the next stage, Erbajolo-Pont d'Altianni1 (24.57km), in fourth in the class, 19th overall, again. Thus he lagged behind a little from the class leaders during the first loop of the day.

As Arai switched to the medium tires for the afternoon loop, many expected he would play catch-up. But his opportunities to close the gap with the leaders were compromised due to an unforeseen situation. In the aftermath of the other competitor's accident, the sixth stage, Barchetta-La Porta (23.24km), and the last stage of the day, Erbajolo-Pont d'Altianni2, had to be cancelled. Nevertheless, Arai concentrated on the only remaining stage of the afternoon, Taverna-Pont de Castirla (15.28km), and managed to clock the second fastest time in the class, 15th overall. Consequently, with a few retirements on this day, he gained some positions and finished Day 2 in second in the class and 13th overall.

While he had a shift lever failure in the opening stage of Day 3, Toshi still performed very well during the first loop of the day and finished both stages, SS9 Macinaggio-Centuri1 (15.56km) and SS10 Marinca-Cagnano1 (28.96km), in second and 16th overall.

His consistent drive led to the third place finish in the class in the first stage of the second run of the loop, Macinaggio-Centuri2, but then he had a slow puncture in the next stage, Marinca-Cagnano2, which he finished in fourth, 19th overall, as a result. For the third and last run of the loop, however, he fought back and set the second fastest time in the class, 13th overall, both in SS13 Macinaggio-Centuri3 and SS14 Marinca-Cagnano3. At the end of the day, Arai finished the rally in second in the class and 14th overall. The podium finish in the Production Cup class could be said quite a good start for his quest for the back-to-back title.

Jarkko Nikara who drove another Subaru WRX STI R4 prepared by Tomi Makinen Racing also displayed splendid performances. Even though this was the first Tour de Corse and the only second tarmac rally for him, he drove consistently throughout Day 1 and ended the day in fourth in the Production Cup class, 21st overall.

Helped by the medium compound tires, Nikara performed even better during Day 2. He was actually faster than the Japanese veteran teammate in the first run of the loop and finished the day in third in the class and 17th overall.

However, his car had a transmission problem in Macinaggio-Centuri1, the first stage of Day 3, and Nikara was forced to retire at the end of the stage. This must have been disappointing result for him but his day by day improvement was quite impressive in spite of his very limited experience on tarmac rallies.

　[Result : 2nd in the Production Cup]
"For this year's series, we decided to use the car prepared by Tomi Makinen Racing. But we didn't have an opportunity to test the car before this event, so the set up was still far from perfect. And we also had some minor problems such as a shift lever failure in SS9. The tasks ahead are fine tuning of suspension and mapping of differentials.

"But the tires were much better than the ones we had used in last year's Corsican round. There were some unexpected incidents but the grip level of the tires has been improved for sure. Actually, the rally was physically tougher for me than last year because the tires were now much grippier. I think the construction is good enough, so the tires will be much better once they have a longer life by improving rubber compounds.

"As the gravel tires are also getting better, I am quite confident about our next round, Rally San Mario, if we can make improvement to the car set up."

"Because we run two cars for Arai and Nikara, we brought 220 tires in this event in total, which consists of two types of compounds, soft and medium, for both dry and wet tires.

"Tires wore faster than predicted in SS2 on Day 1 but the situation was almost same with other tire manufacturers, probably because the surfaces of that particular stage were very rough. For the morning stages of Day 2, we chose the soft compound for Arai, as the surface temperature was low in the morning. But the temperature rose quickly, which led to a difficult situation for him. It was frustrating for us that two out of three stages in the afternoon were cancelled because we were aiming for some fight back in those stages. On Day 3, we had a puncture of unknown cause but no other major problem regarding the tires.

"Arai drove faster than last year and got on the podium by finishing in second in the class. Nikara was getting faster and faster as the rally went on, despite a lack of experience on tarmac. And we learned a lot in terms of tires, so it was pretty fruitful experience from the view point of a tire manufacturer."