The second round of the 2021 Japanese Rally Championship, Shinshiro Rally 2021, was held in effect as the series’ curtain-raiser due to the cancellation of the first round, planned in February. As one of the countermeasures against the Covid-19 pandemic, the rally was run behind closed doors, as was the case last year. However, there was an innovative attempt such that a local TV station dispatched their broadcasting vans to stream every special stage live via the internet, which was seldom seen in Japanese domestic rally events in the past.

The rally consisted of eight Special Stages. Funatsuke (5.97km), a technical stage introduced last year, was run twice in Leg 1 on Saturday. The famous longest stage of the rally, Ganpou-North (12.65km), was also used twice in Leg 2 on Sunday. Plus, Onikubo (8.86km) on a wide road was run twice each day. So, it was a good mix of technical winding stages and high-speed stages.

A few days before the rally, the official announcement of cherry blossom flowering was made in Nagoya, the closest big city. So, Shinshiro Rally 2021 started with a feeling of spring arrival. Friday, 19th March, when they had recce and scrutineering, the day’s high was over 20 degrees Celsius, but the forecast said it would rain heavily on Sunday. Therefore, the competitors had to consider this during their preparation works.

There were 67 entries, including the Open class entrants. The reigning champion, Hiroki Arai / Noritaka Kosaka in #1 car, and Toshihiro Arai / Naoya Tanaka in #2 car both drove Subaru WRX STIs. The third-place finisher of last year’s championship, Fumio Nutahara, was absent, as he is going to join the series with his new car, Toyota GR Yaris, from the next round. The 2019 JN-3 class champion, Yuta Yamamoto, also got a GR Yaris and switched to JN-1 class this year. Hiroshi Yanagisawa / Takahiro Yasui pair attracted much attention because they drove an exotic Skoda Fabia R5 car.

Leg 1 started under the blue sky, and exciting battles were fought on a pleasant spring day, with the low in the early morning at 13.7 degrees and the high in the daytime at 19.8 degrees. Among the Yokohama Tire users, Toshihiro Arai finished the opening stage, Funatsuke 1, in third, just 0.3 seconds behind the stage winner, followed by Hiroki Arai and Yanagisawa, and the top five ended the stage within just 3.7 seconds.

While Yanagisawa clocked the second-fastest time in SS2 Onikubo 1, the father-and-son Arais struggled here. Both Subaru drivers made some adjustments to their suspension at the service after SS2, and it worked. Hiroki Arai started his fightback and set the third-fastest time in SS3 Funatsuke 2. Then Yanagisawa won SS4 Onikubo 2, the last stage of Leg 1, and moved up to second in the class since one of his main rivals dropped back due to some damage on tires. Toshihiro Arai ended Leg 1 in third, and his son followed in fourth, both looking to more position gains in Leg 2.

As forecasted, it started to rain around midnight, and the rain became heavier after dawn. Leg 2 got underway with SS5 Ganpou-North 1 at 8:31 am. The precipitation at the time reached 11.5mm per hour.

The road surfaces of SS5 were very slippery, but Toshihiro Arai finished the stage in second, fully utilizing the performance of ADVAN A052 tires. Then the competitors headed to SS6 Onikubo 3, but the conditions were so tricky, as there were some deep puddles on the road. On top of this, the visibility was abysmal because of thick fog in this high altitude area.

Under such conditions, the rally leader at the time crashed in SS6 and retired. Fortunately, the crew could walk away from the wreck, but it was a severe accident. As the weather looked unlikely to get any better, and the road conditions were too bad to continue, the remaining SS7 and 8 were canceled, which automatically meant the rally terminated at the end of SS6. As a result, Toshihiro Arai won it for the first time since Montre 2019. And Hiroki Arai finished in second, so the father-and-son one-two finish came true.

In JN-4 class, Hiroshi Sudo returned to the series with his Suzuki Swift, but this time, he paired with Sachiko Hirota instead of his regular co-driver, Masakazu Arai, who was absent for the other commitment. Winning SS2 and 3, Sudo was the rally leader in the class at the end of Leg 1. Although he lost the position in SS5 on the second day, he still secured second place under challenging conditions when the veteran’s skill came in handy.

The reigning JN-6 class champion, Shintaro Meiji / Kenta Satonaka pair replaced their Toyota Vitz with Yaris. They already ran the two-pedal car with a CVT transmission in the open class last November in Karatsu. Meiji showed off his ability by winning all special stages in Leg 1 and ended the day as the class leader. However, he gave way to his main rival in the first stage of Leg 2, Ganpou-Kita 1, as he drove the rain-soaked stage very carefully. At the end of the day, Meiji finished the rally in second but bringing the car back safely without having any accident or problem meant a lot, especially considering the future rounds.

In the JN-3 class, Genki Takeuchi / Satoshi Kimura, who finished the last season in second, came back to the series with their familiar Subaru BRZ. Takeuchi strategically managed his tires, but he still won three stages out of four in Leg 1. However, he lost ground in the very wet Leg 2 stages and finished safely in third in the class, vowing a fightback in the next round.