One of the most telling stories from this year’s Attack Tsukuba came from our good friend Yasuhiro the day before the afternoon before the main event. After clocking a 56.00 flat during Attack practice, Yasuhiro Ando’s RX-7 suffered a devastating engine failure exiting the final corner. The setback came just as he was regaining pace following setup struggles post-WTAC in Sydney. With his progress finally closing the gap to his 2024 speed (low 55s, high 54s), the timing couldn’t have been worse.
But in true time attack spirit, Ando refused to let the failure derail him. When he pulled in and I asked him what happened, he simply said, “Engine change!“, with a huge grin on his face.
Immediately after getting the car off track, he loaded it onto a wrecker and drove straight to Scoot Sports in Kanagawa. There, the team pulled the blown 13B while Ando drove to his shop on the Izu Peninsula to retrieve a spare engine. By the time he returned, the Scoot crew had the swap underway. They tuned the new motor, and by early morning, the car was back at Tsukuba. When I arrived at the track at 6 AM, Ando was already there, energized and ready to go. He pushed hard during the main event, setting a 55.59—a testament to his determination—placing 11th overall and 7th (ironically) in the Turbo Class.
Ando’s relentless work ethic and unwavering love for the rotary platform are what set him apart from so many other drivers in the field. For him, obstacles aren’t roadblocks; they’re just part of the journey. It shows that he truly loves what he does and even circumstances that would frustrate the majority of us are taken as a chance to do more of what he loves.
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