Tokyo—The Yokohama Rubber Co., Ltd., is pleased to announce that machines equipped with ADVAN tires finished first and second in the top JN-1 class at the Shinshiro Rally 2021, Round 2 of this year’s Japanese Rally Championship series, held during March 19-21.

As Round 1 originally scheduled to be held in February was cancelled, the Shinshiro Rally was effectively the first round of this year’s series. Competing in heavy rain, the Toshihiro Arai/Naoya Tanaka team driving the FUJISUBARU AMS WRX STI finished ahead of the pack, followed by the Hiroki Arai/Noritaka Kosaka team in their ADVAN KYB AMS WRX. The result is a great start toward the ultimate goal of capturing the series top JN-1 class championship. Teams drove to the finish on “ADVAN A08B”and “ADVAN A052” street sport tires.

The consumer tire business in Yokohama Rubber’s new three-year (2021–2023) medium-term management plan, Yokohama Transformation 2023 (YX2023), aims to maximize the sales ratios of high-value-added YOKOHAMA tires, namely the global flagship ADVAN brand, the GEOLANDAR brand of tires for SUVs and pickup trucks, and various winter tires. YX2023 positions participation in motorsports activities as crucial to the company’s effort to develop new tire technologies that will further strengthen the ADVAN and GEOLANDAR brands. Yokohama Rubber therefore is again participating in a wide variety of motorsports events in Japan and around the globe, from top-category to grassroots events.