LIFE IN STAGES
WE SIT DOWN WITH RALLY PRODIGY MIKE YOUNG
NZ Performance Car: Hi, Mike. Thanks for taking the time out of your schedule to yarn with us. Can you quickly tell the readers who you are and what you do?
Mike: Hey, guys. I’m Mike Young, a 26-year-old rally driver from Opotiki, New Zealand. I’m currently based in Perth, Australia, and I compete in the FIA Asia-Pacific Rally Championship (APRC) with Cusco Racing and TRD [Toyota Racing Development].
What sparked your interest in motorsport, and how did you end up driving?
My dad, Brian Young, has been photographing and filming motorsport all his life, and we used to go to events as a family. He tried to get me to take up a camera to follow in his footsteps, which I did for a while, but I didn’t want to stand on the sidelines anymore — I always wanted to be the one driving. I started out in karts at Edgecumbe kart club when I was about 10, then progressed to a rally car around a paddock, and later I got a driver’s license so I could do autocross and hill climbs. My first car club was Motorsport Bay of Plenty, and I’m still a member!
We understand that your first rally was Rally New Zealand at the age of 18. What was it like driving at that level so early on?
That year wasn’t a proper international event, so it was a lot more low-key than it sounds. However, it was a two-day event, which meant lots of kilometres to cover and made for a really good experience. It was my first rally, so I had lots to learn, and that was the main reason we entered, as we were going to Malaysia so I needed the experience.
That’s right, you competed in the Malaysian Rally Championship with the Pennzoil rally team. How did that opportunity to drive overseas arise?
A Malaysian gentleman by the name of Guna Rajoo knew my dad from his work and owned a big team that included APRC driver champions like Cody Crocker (Aus.), Katsu Taguchi (Japan), and Karamjit Singh (Malaysia). He had an old two-wheel-drive Proton Satria available and he offered it to me for free; we just had to pay a local service crew. It was a fantastic opportunity to be involved with a big team and such experienced drivers.
And that was your first international drive — what was it like?
Yes, it was my first international drive, and yes, I was scared! I had heard stories about Malaysian rallies before; they were the toughest in the region. Extremely hot and humid, and roads lined with deep ditches with palm-oil trees dotted around every corner. Once the roads got wet, they turned into ice rinks! We did another three
“YES, IT WAS MY FIRST INTERNATIONAL DRIVE, AND YES, I WAS SCARED!”
events that year, and it was a really good championship to learn car control in all kinds of conditions — especially mud — and to learn to cope with the extreme heat. The car was old and fragile, and we had to take care of it, but it was really cheap rallying. I nosedived it after a big jump on one event and as a result the car needed a whole new front bumper — the service crew raced down the road to the local Proton dealer and got a brand new one. It only cost $40!
You’re currently racing under the Cusco colours; that connection started here in New Zealand, right? What has that connection meant for your career since?
Yeah, it started at Rally [of] Whangarei in 2011 when my dad arranged a little bit of help from the Cusco team. They lent me an FIA driver’s suit in Cusco colours for the event. We finished the rally and won the local 2WD class, and, when I took the suit back to them afterwards, the team manager offered us a 2WD car for Rally Hokkaido. All I had to do was get me and my co-driver, Daniel, over to the event, so of course I said yes! We didn’t actually finish that event; we got to the last set of stages on Sunday and were within sight of the finish when a front wheel came off. It was a good lesson, because, while it wasn’t my fault, I should have checked that all the nuts were tight with a wheel brace before starting the stage. It’s fair to say that we have come a long way since then.
In 2013, you moved up to the main APRC series with Malcolm Read joining you in the co-driver seat. You two still drive together now; how has that relationship helped your driving?
That was a big year, as it was the first time I had the opportunity to drive a car with some manufacturer involvement. The car was a very standard 2WD Toyota Yaris built to R1 specs by Japan’s Toyota Racing Development. Cusco were running the car, and they offered me a full APRC season driving it. We did OK in New Zealand and then crashed in Queensland. We also had two crashes in 2012 when we were on track to win the APRC Junior Cup, so, after that third crash, it was time to re-evaluate and we decided I needed a full-time professional co-driver. Malcolm’s name came up and we immediately gelled, inside and outside of the car. We have quite different personalities, but they seem to complement each other. We even won our first event driving together at the 2013 Malaysian Rally. Malcolm has been a huge help in developing my pace notes, and, because he’s a full-time mechanic outside of rallying, he’s a huge help when things go wrong too! That same year in Thailand, we had a rear hub seize up, and, being a front-wheel-drive car, we literally dragged the Yaris to the finish line of the stage. Malcolm then pulled the wheel off and freed it up so we could complete the next stages and get it repaired in service. If he hadn’t been able to do that, we would have been looking at retirement.
And you went on to win that event too, which you also just discovered played an important role in your morerecent career, correct?
Yeah, on the final afternoon, four cars in front of us retired for various reasons, and we ended up winning the 2013 FIA Asia Cup! The Asia Cup is a driver and co-driver award, but there’s also a trophy that goes to the manufacturer, and this went to TRD Japan. We were blown away by a visit to TRD headquarters earlier this month and found the FIA Asia Cup trophy we had won for them back in 2013 sitting in the centre of their other trophies. Apparently, that award was why TRD specifically asked us to drive the new 4WD Toyota Yaris development car.
You jumped up to 4WD and turbo power with the Cusco Subaru in 2015. What was the jump like, and how did it affect your driving style?
Well, at first it was a big shock. The car was big and had heaps of power compared to what I was used to in 2WD. But, after a few stages, I was able to use the power to my advantage and keep massive corner speed, something I learned being in 2WD for years. In terms of my driving style, I had to drive more sideways through the corners and almost throw the car into corners at times.
That same year, you finished runner-up in the APRC drivers’ championship for the second time. Do you think that there was anything that could have been done to claim the top spot?
Motorsport is full of ifs and buts, so no excuses. We lost [in] New Zealand by 1.3 seconds to a Skoda, and I was going too fast in Malaysia. It’s that simple! Looking back now, I should have eased into it more, but you try telling that to a rally driver!
That would have fallen on deaf ears, no doubt. You also entered and won top honours at the Elite Motorsport Academy; did that experience improve you as a driver?
The Elite Motorsport Academy was an amazing experience, and I’m so grateful to have had the opportunity. It really does prepare you well for so many aspects of racing and rallying that you don’t actually think about when you start out. The experience certainly changed my approach to staying fit and healthy, hydration, dealing with media, and the mental approach required at the top level.
You were the first driver to pilot a plug-in hybrid in an international FIA rally and won the inaugural APRC New Energy Cup. Can electric really compete with fossilfuel cars?
I first met the people at BYD Auto in 2014 when I rallied in China. We talked about driving with them in the Chinese championship but it got complicated, as the series didn’t allow foreign drivers in their category. Then the opportunity came up to run the car at the APRC China Rally in 2016 as a National Sporting Authority (ASN)
“WE WERE BLOWN AWAY BY A VISIT TO TRD HEADQUARTERS EARLIER THIS MONTH AND FOUND THE FIA ASIA CUP TROPHY WE HAD WON FOR THEM BACK IN 2013 SITTING IN THE CENTRE OF THEIR OTHER TROPHIES. ”
homologated car; however, it required a huge amount of work to pass the FIA safety standards, and I’ll always be grateful to Norbert Ruths at MTEC Sport Germany, who organized the rebuild and worked long into the night to get the car compliant.
Driving an electric car was certainly a different experience. When the batteries were charged, it had heaps of torque. However, the problem was that the batteries would run out after 30km, and we finished each of the legs on the little 1500cc petrol engine. If I’m honest, that made it a bit of a dog, but we finished, and, for BYD, it was a big deal, so that was all that mattered.
The 2018 APRC season saw its fair share of mechanical retirements; what are your hopes for the 2019 season?
Yeah, 2018 was a frustrating year for sure. Every problem we had was something different, so hopefully all the bugs are ironed out of the car [Toyota Yaris 4WD]. For 2019, I really hope that we can get some solid results and finishes. We proved last year that the car has the pace, and we won many stages. It was a different car then, in terms of set-up; now, it’s improved so much, so I’m expecting it to go really well. It ran without issue at our preseason snow rally in Japan.
And you’re fresh off the back of a podium finish at that snow rally (Rally of Tsumagoi). How was it tackling the snow for the first time?
It was like riding a bike for the first time, really. I fell off for the first few kilometres. Luckily, the team gave me plenty of practice before the rally, because I’d never driven on snow or ice before. It was a unique experience for me; when there was lots of snow, there was lots of grip, but when you got down to the ice, it was extremely slippery, and, unfortunately, we weren’t allowed to use any spikes. At first, I took it very easy; I just wanted to learn the conditions and the stages. The conditions seemed to change all the time: one minute snow, the next it was ice. I was always unsure of the grip level, but, after a while, I got more confident using the snow banks to keep us on the road. I definitely want to do more stages on snow, for sure!
It looks scary just watching from home! What does it mean to you to be a Kiwi competing at the international level?
These days I’m called a ‘Perth-based Kiwi’, but I’m absolutely a passionate Kiwi and happy to fly the flag wherever we go. I’m also the Kiwi international rally driver that no one has ever heard of, as I don’t have much of a profile back home, having done most of my driving overseas. I’ve got a bigger fan base in Japan and across Asia.
What would you say is the big-picture goal that you’re working towards with your career?
Obviously, the big-picture goal would be to drive in World Rally Championship (WRC); however, you have to ask: is that realistic for me? I’ve been to a few WRC events to check it out, and there are literally hundreds of young European drivers with talent and loads of money behind them. I’ve been offered drives by Ford in the WRC Junior Series and by Skoda for the APRC, but — and it’s a big but — you need to have a big sponsor or take loads of cash with you, as the manufacturers at that level expect you to pay your own way to start with. I don’t have lots of money to fund that, nor does my family, so we’ve just worked away doing things we can afford, and, gradually, we’re getting there. Ideally, I’d like to eventually become a professional rally driver, but if I can continue rallying at an international level at little or no cost, that would be good too.
Do you have any advice for the young Kiwis looking to follow in your footsteps at a local or international level?
I guess it depends on your goals and aspirations. Our thoughts were that while New Zealand has one of the best rally championships and some of the best roads in the world, it’s a small country, and finding decent sponsors is almost impossible. By going outside New Zealand and taking the opportunities that have come our way, we landed a long-term drive with Japan’s biggest rally team, Cusco; we work directly with the motorsport tyre–development people at Dunlop Japan; and we’re building a relationship with TRD as they look to develop a new race/ rally engine. None of those things would have been possible in New Zealand. So, I guess what I’m saying is look outside the box and take any opportunity that comes your way!
Sound advice, that. Thanks for allowing the readers to get to know you a little better, and we wish you all the best as you head towards those WRC ranks!