With the 13th event of its calendar for 2012, the Intercontinental Rally Challenge hit its halfway point and the seventh round, Rally San Marino, was held in the mini-republic located in the central part of the Italian Peninsula from July 5th to 7th. Several Yokohama equipped drivers, including Toshihiro Arai and Jarkko Nikara both driving Tomi Makinen Racing-run Subaru WRX STI R4s, entered this event.

While Rally San Marino was new to the IRC calendar this year, the event has a long history since its inauguration in 1970 and this was the 40th edition of the traditional rally. Although the Head Quarter and Service Park were located in the city center of this republic, the stages were arranged around the west of the city, the mountainous area in Tuscany, Italy. The hard packed surfaces had a lot of gravels and stones on them and the tracks were relatively narrow. The most stages were the mix of middle to high speed and slow sections.

As this was the only second appearance in IRC for Arai and Nikara, after the fourth round of the series, Tour de Corse, which had been run on the tarmac, Rally San Marino was the first gravel event for them. Therefore, Tomi Makinen Racing conducted the pre-event testing on July 3rd and it seemed to benefit for the two drivers. While there was still some work to be done on the car set up, Arai and Nikara performed well in the Shake Down session on Thursday, clocking very good times against their opponents in the Production Cup class.

The rally got underway in the late evening of Thursday, July 5th, with the ceremonial start in the city center of San Marino and earnest competition in the Tuscany mountain stages began on the next day. Using the medium compound ADVAN A053 that is Yokohama's prime gravel rally tire, Arai and Nikara were in really good form in the early stages. In the de facto opening stage, SS2 Mercatello 1 (24.15km), as SS1 Sestino (19.33km) had had to be cancelled due to the other competitor's crash, Nikara set the fastest time in the Production Cup class and finished in sixth overall and Arai was second in the class, eighth overall.

After the mid-day service, Nikara was the fastest in the class again in SS3 Sestino 2, followed by Arai in second, and they were seventh and ninth overall respectively. As a result, the two Yokohama equipped drivers formed 1-2 and were pulling away from the other Production Cup competitors but, then, a problem hit Arai's Subaru. One of the ball joints in the car's suspension system had broken and the Japanese had to park his car in the road section on his way to SS4 Mercatell 2. Arai was forced to retire on the spot and the team decided not to restart on Day 2 because there wouldn't be much point in doing so.

After Arai's early exit from the event, however, his Finnish teammate just went on and finished the 24.15km long Mercatell 2 in seventh overall and first in the class. For the all tarmac night stage in the city center, SS5 San Marino (6.43km), Nikara chose the ADVAN A036 tires that were suitable for hard packed gravel to asphalt surfaces and clocked the sixth fastest time overall even though the stage was soaked by an unexpected shower. This time was of course the second to none in the class and only 10 seconds slower than the leading S2000 car. Nikara ended the day in fifth overall and was leading the Production Cup class with a considerable margin.

Under the hot summer sun, Nikara continued to perform on Day 2, the final day of the event. Despite controlling the gap with the crew running in second, he put three straight stage wins in the class - and eighth overall - in SS6 Monte Benedetto 1 (6.85km), SS7 Rofelle 1 (15.85km) and SS8 Sant' Agata Feltria 1 (14.45km).

As the second loop of the day consisted of five stages in a row, Nikara started it with the hard compound version of ADVAN A053 and the choice worked well. Finishing SS9 Monte Benedetto 2 in fifth overall became his best result in this event and he was sixth overall in the next two stages, SS10 Rofelle 2 and SS11 Sant' Agata Feltria 2, as well. Needless to say, he was the fastest in the class in all of these three stages and his consistent pace was remarkable.

Since he didn't need to push anymore, Nikara gave away the top slots of the time sheet for SS12 Monte Benedetto 3 and SS13 Rofelle 3. But he easily kept the lead position of the class and the fifth place overall until the finish to claim his maiden Production Cup victory.

Along with Arai and Nikara who drove Subaru WRX STI R4s under the Tomi Makinen Racing banner, three more crews used Yokohama tires in this event. While Zoltan Szabo in a Group N Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX had to retire in SS7, Marco Fantini driving Suzuki Ignis S1600 won the A class by finishing the rally in 14th overall and he was followed, in overall standings, by Zsolt Szijj who took the third place in the Group A class in a Lancer Evo IX.

"We supplied around 200 tires for this event, as we supported two cars for Arai and Nikara. We mainly used the medium compound version of our gravel rally tire, ADVAN A053, backed up by the soft for wet surface and the hard for higher temperature or rough gravel surfaces. In addition, we also had ADVAN A036 which covers from the hard packed gravel to the asphalt surfaces as the trump card because there was an all tarmac stage in Day 1.

"We had tried to improve the controllability of A053, as its grip level already seemed to be good enough. The two drivers used the medium compound in Day 1 and their stage times and consistency showed that our development targets were met.

"But we have to admit that the wear rate was a bit higher because it was hotter and the surfaces were harder than predicted. As Nikara built up a big margin to the competitors behind him during Day 1, he chose the hard compound for Day 2. He was just trying to keep his lead position for the second day, so the hard compound was good enough for him in terms of both grip level and durability. On the full tarmac stage on Day1, A036 worked very well as expected.

"Unfortunately, Arai had to retire from the rally but it was compensated by Nikara's good result. Just as we had hoped, he built up a considerable margin in Day 1, using the medium compound, and that allowed us to try the hard for Day 2, which would be a great help for the further technical development.

"Looking into our next round in Cyprus, we are trying to improve the durability and the heat resistance of the tires one step further."