The thirteenth and final round of the 2012 Intercontinental Rally Challenge was Cyprus Rally that the eastern Mediterranean island country, the Republic of Cyprus, hosted on November 2-4. The two Yokohama supported drivers in this series, Toshihiro Arai and Yarkko Nikara, participated in the rally with their Subaru WRX STI R4 cars prepared by Tommi Makinen Racing.

This was the 39th edition of the most famous rally in the eastern Mediterranean area. It has been a regular fixture of the European Rally Championship for decades and was included in the FIA World Rally Championship series from 2000 to 2006 and 2009. Between and after these WRC years, the rally was a round of Middle East Rally Championship for 2007 and 2008 and then it joined the IRC series in 2010.

The event had originally been a gravel rally for long time but recently it has been run on the so-called mixed surfaces by adding some tarmac stages to the original routes, which is one of the features of this event these years.

The host town of the rally, Paphos, is located in the southwest area of the island. The port town is well-known for having a number of World Heritage sites. The stages were arranged around the mountain area in the northeast of the town and they had a lot of middle to slow speed corners and about 70% of the stages surfaces were gravel. But the tarmac surfaces varied from smooth to rough and the majority of gravel roads were also rather rough with a layer of sharp-edged stones on them.

On top of this, this year's event was welcomed by strong sunshine like midsummer days, so the conditions were harsh for both drivers and cars. However, Arai and Nikara displayed very good performances from the first stages of the event.

The rally began with SS1 Super Special Stage (3.2km) which was all tarmac stage run in the city street of Paphos in the late evening on Friday. Using the ADVAN A036 tires that cover from hard-packed gravel to asphalt surfaces, Nikara set the second fastest time overall in this stage. This was the fastest time among the Production Cup class contenders and Arai followed him with the third overall and second in the class. Thus the two Yokohama drivers ended the opening stage in a one-two.

Their good form continued in the mountain stages on Saturday. In SS2 Koilinia 1 (23.97km) which consisted of 22% tarmac and 78% gravel, Nikara chose the hard compound version of Yokohama's gravel rally tire ADVAN A053 and finished the stage in fourth overall. Arai followed him again and was fifth overall, while the Japanese used the medium hard compound version of the same type of tire. Soon after that, however, both of them experienced unfavorable happenings.

While Nikara finished SS3 Salamiou 1 (12.43km, tarmac 57% and Gravel 43%) in fifth overall, Arai went off the road in this stage. He was lucky enough to continue but lost more than two minutes, so his stage time was 25th overall and 14th in the Production Cup class. His position after SS3 dropped to 12th overall and sixth in the class.

SS4 Panayia 1 (30.41km) was a 100% gravel stage of which the two Yokohama drivers have a good track record. Arai was the third fastest overall in this stage and regained some positions that he had lost in the previous stage. But Nikara had a puncture during the stage and had to drive for 15km with a deflated tire, which cost him a lot of time, although he was still in fifth overall in the stage time and managed to keep his position.

For the second run of the loop, Arai and Nikara chose the hard compound version of ADVAN A053 because the surfaces should have had fewer stones in the repeated stages and the temperatures became higher. The choice proved to be correct and they were consistently fast in the following two stages.

In SS5 Koilinia 2 which was mostly gravel roads, Nikara and Arai were fourth and fifth fastest overall respectively. Then they finished SS6 Salamiou 2, the repeat of SS3 which a little more than half distance was tarmac, in the same positions. They were the first and second in the Production Cup class during these two stages.

But a problem hit Nikara again in the next all gravel stage, SS7 Panayia 2. The Production Cup class leader had another puncture and was forced to replace the wheel during the timed stage. As a result, he finished this stage in lowly 24th and ended Leg 1 in fifth overall and third in the class. On the other hand, the last stage of the day went smoothly for Arai. He set the third fastest time overall and this was good enough for him to move up to the first in the class and third overall at the end of Leg 1.

Arai went on with setting competitive times in Leg 2 on Sunday. Making the most of the medium hard compound version of ADVAN A053, he finished the first two stages of the day, SS8 Prodromi 1 (19.43km, tarmac 36% and gravel 64%) and SS9 Gialia 1 (14.82km, 100% gravel), in eighth and sixth overall.

Then the Japanese earned the fifth fastest overall stage time in the all tarmac SS10 Stavros 1 (15.91km) by putting ADVAN A036s, which he carried as spares, on his Subaru's front axle. This tactic worked well again in the second run of the loop in the afternoon, so he clocked the fifth fastest time in the mixed surfaces SS11 Prodromi 2 and the all gravel SS12 in succession. Arai's performance in the all tarmac SS13 Stavros 2 was even better and he set the third fastest stage time overall.

Arai eventually finished the rally in third and got on the overall podium for the first time for him in IRC. At the same time, he claimed his first Production Cup class victory of the season, which gave him the runner-up position in the final result of the 2012 IRC Production Cup.

Nikara also drove excellently throughout Leg 2. He chose the hard compound ADVAN A053 for the day once again and was fifth fastest overall in SS8 Prodromi 1 and SS9 Gialia 1. Then he put ADVAN A036s on the car's front axle for SS10 Stavros 1, as his teammate did, and clocked the sixth fastest time overall.

The Finn kept the momentum in the second run of the loop. He was the fourth and sixth fastest overall in SS11 Prodromi 2 and SS12 Gialia 2 and then concluded his rally with the second fastest time in the final stage, SS13 Stavros 2. At the end of the day, his final position was fourth overall and second in the Production Cup class, which meant the two Yokohama supported drivers achieved one-two finish in the class in the final round of the 2012 IRC season.

　[Result : Winner. in Production Cup (3rd. overall)]
"I misunderstood the distance and went off the road in the third stage but I didn't have any major problem throughout the rally otherwise. In the early part of the season, we went through hard times to find out the right set up of the car but the situation has improved very much this time. As for the tires, I mainly used the medium hard and hard compound versions of ADVAN A053 and I found they also have made a huge step forward. The level of speed was already good enough, since the construction had been changed last year, and the remaining main issue was the durability. But now it has been improved and the problems such as overheating or excessive wear are almost gone. This improvement would be very effective in harsh conditions of rough gravel rallies in midsummer, for example. I think that is the main reason why the number of Yokohama tires users is increasing. All in all, it was a good rally for us, as the result was our best of the season."

　[Result : 2nd. in Production Cup (4th. overall)]
"I would really like to continue having opportunities to do what I love which is racing and continue improving."
"The partnership with YOKOHAMA and their Motorsports supports team as well as with Subaru and the excellent relationship with the Tommi Makinen Racing has meant we have been very competitive in our class' and I would like to thank them all for their continuous support and professionalism."

"We had shipped 270 tires in total for this event, as we supplied them for two cars for Arai and Nikara. The core of our lineup was our gravel rally tire ADVAN A053, with two types of compound, hard and the newly developed medium hard. And we supplemented them with ADVAN A036 which was for the tarmac stages.

"Arai mainly used the medium hard version of ADVAN A053, apart from the second loop of Leg 1 where he chose the hard compound. Nikara used the hard compound only throughout the rally because he liked the feeling of the harder one but both of two compounds worked well and the stages times were good enough in either case. The durability had sometimes been the main concern in San Marino Rally but it seemed to be at a sufficient level this time.

"We had a good opportunity to check the performance of the new medium hard compound of ADVAN A053 in this rally and it was very valuable for the tire engineers. This new compound will be effective for the long stages in midsummer when the soft or medium compounds may not be suitable.

"There was still a certain performance gap between our cars and S2000 cars because they were also improving but now we were good enough to finish the stages in the overall top ten. We are sure both of our tarmac tires and gravel tires have made good progress, through competing in IRC this year."