In the latest video from APRC.TV, catch up with all the trials of the Japanese driver’s Longyou sojourn.

As Murray Brown mentioned in the last APRC Live podcast, there’s a raft of changes planned for the Asia-Pacific Rally Championship on 2008.

The most significant is the addition of two regional ‘cups’, providing extra exposure for crews that don’t have the budget to contest the full ‘six out of seven’ rounds of the series.

In the ‘Asia Cup’ crews will be battle each other at rallies Japan, Indonesia, Malaysia and China, each crew nominating to contest three of the four rallies. While the ‘Pacific Cup’ crews will fight it out at rallies Nouvelle Caledonia, Whangarei and Canberra.

For the ‘full-time’ APRC crews, they will the continue to battle for the Asia-Pacific Rally Championship at six of the series seven rounds that they nominate before the start of the series. (Additionally, they may also nominate to contest either the Asian or Pacific cups as well as the full APRC title).

Also expected to make an appearance next year will be Super 2000 cars.

Already competing throughout Europe, South Africa and Australia, the Super 2000 category allows manufacturers who don’t sell turbo-charged, 4WD cars the opportunity to compete with an FIA-approved drive-train, and high-revving, normally aspirated engines.

And the FIA’s new tyre rules come into force for 2008, limiting crews tyre choice to commercially available rubber, and spelling the end of well-funded teams being able to ship in ‘spec’ tyres for particular events.

As Murray Brown said, “I’ve had considerable interest from teams and drivers for APRC 2008. I am very confident of a strong turn out for next year and believe the inclusion of the Asia Cup and Pacific Cup will boost entries at all the events”.

Photos courtesy of Linear Photographs, Keith McKinnon and Jewski

One of those photographers is Anand (Andy) Philar, and he’s captured some outstanding photos of Rally China, which you can check out on his Flickr page. (Make sure to check out the Rally Canberra photos while you’re there!)

Unfortunately for the MRF team, China provided no joy. Katsu Taguchi crashed out during the first morning, while Jussi Valimaki and Gaurav Gill were forced to stop thanks to contaminated fuel.

However China proved to be a treat for Brian Green, the only APRC driver, apart from Crocker, not to fall foul to the Chinese roads. He not only took second place on the podium, but also fourth for the series.

The APRC season comes to a close next weekend in Longyou. And although Rally China is the last event for 2007, it’s one of the toughest events on the calendar.

Motor Image driver Cody Crocker just has to start the rally to claim back-to-back APRC titles, but knows the event holds some of the toughest stages found anywhere in the world.

“There’s a few really, really tight, twisty stages…at least 50 hairpins in about 19 or 20kms”, Crocker said, speaking from his home base in Melbourne.

“(They’re) pretty serious stages. Very technical, very demanding, but very, very interesting too. We had quite good fun last year; maybe because the pressure was off and we didn’t have to win the championship at that rally.”

Run through the countryside surrounding the city of Longyou, in the Zhejiang province, Rally China offers a completely different set of challenges for the APRC crews, not the least of which was the rain that transformed last years event into a mud-bath.

“China last year was very wet and very muddy, the muddiest rally we’d done for a long time. China is always unique because of the types of roads and where you go. You go through villages which are very narrow and twisty, and you get a lot of the locals standing by the side of the road watching you, about two feet away from the car.”

The rally is also a round of the Chinese domestic series, which features both the best local drivers, and well known internationals, such as David Higgins and Martin Rowe, and Crocker’s ex-Subaru Australia team-mate Dean Herridge.

“Last year was one of the best turn-outs we’ve seen for the start of a rally in a long time. You had a lot of international champions there and it was a really good competition. This year…I think there’s some of the IRC and Super 2000 cars there as well, so it’s going to be even more interesting.”

And while Cody would like nothing better than upstaging the rest of the field, there’s still the important matter of securing the manufacturers title for Subaru. “We’ve won the championship, but we really want to win the manufacturers championship as well, and there’s only two points in that. So whoever wins the rally, between Subaru and Mitsubishi, will win the manufacturers championship.”

The rally kicks off on Friday with a super special stage, before the crews take to the Zhejiang mountains for Saturdays and Sundays stages.

Coverage of Rally China will be available from APRC TV, and the next APRC Live podcast, with all the action of Rally China, will be available mid next week.

But in the meantime, you can catch a glimpse of just how tough it will be to make it the finish line at Rally China:

MRF Tyres driver Katsu Taguchi has upstaged the cream of the Production World Rally Championship field to complete Rally Japan as the production car home, his 8th place earning him the final WRC driver point.

Katsu drove faultlessly all weekend, leading the Group-N field from start to finish, with only the more powerful WRC cars able to beat him in the changeable conditions.

Friday’s eight stages were run in fog, bright sunshine and then heavy rain later in the day. But Katsu put his local knowledge to great use, extending his lead as the conditions worsened. “I’m really happy with everything,” said Taguchi. “The car is working very well, we haven’t had any problems at all. The roads are getting quite rough in places, but nothing we can’t cope with”.

Underscoring just how treacherous the conditions were, the attrition rate in the WRC field was high, with high profile drivers like Sebastien Loeb, Marcus Gronholm, Petter Solberg, Chris Atkinson and Jari-Matti Latvala all retiring during the event.

Even Katsu’s long-time co-driver, Mark Stacey, was impressed at the Japanese veterans performance. “Katsu has been amazing…totally in control in the mud, knowing just where to find the grip. This is the kind of performance Katsu has been promising for a long time.”

Finishing day one in 11th place and more than 30 seconds ahead of PWRC regular Fumio Nutahara, Katsu pushed further ahead on day two, leading Gabriel Pozzo by nearly a minute and jumping into 8th place.

Katsu drove conservatively on the final day to claim the final WRC drivers point, Pozzo making up some time late in the event, but never coming within a minute of the APRC regular.

“I pushed a little bit this morning, just to make sure of my pace. When I saw that he (Pozzo) was watching the PWRC runners behind him, then I was happy to lift off and get to the finish. In a way, I am quite sad this was the way we had to drive today. The roads, particularly in Panke Nikorpet and Penke – where the surface was harder, were very good. They would have been great stages to race on. Nevermind, I don’t mind so much, because I have achieved this result – which is incredible for me, my co-driver Mark Stacey (Australia) and all of the people in my team, the corporate sponsors and everybody in Mitsubshi. The car was perfect and we had no punctures. A great rally!”

It was less happy rally for Subaru’s Toshi Arai. A first or second place in the PWRC drivers would have wrapped up another title for Arai and Tony Sirrcombe. But things started to go wrong on stage seven, his Subaru running off the road and bringing his day to an early end. He was able to restart on leg 2, but lost further time thanks to five punctures throughout the event.

Toshi did make it to the end of the event, scoring top-10 stages time along the way. But the time lost was too great to score any additional championship points. Having completed his six nominated events, Toshi will have to wait for rallies Ireland and Wales. If Pozzo can score an additional 18 points, he’ll take the 2007 Group N championship.

Photos courtesy of Linear Photographs and Mitsubishi Motorsport.

A lot has happened in the 12 months since Rifat Singkar, Indonesia’s highest-profile rally driver, claimed a podium on debut. Driving a Lancer Evo 9, Sungkar survived the mush and slush of Rally China 2006, 3rd place the perfect start to his APRC career.

Now coming to the end of his first full-time season in the APRC, Rifat finds himself in a very different position; fighting Cusco Racing driver Hiroshi Yanagisawa for fourth place in the championship.

Although both Rifat and Hiroshi currently sit behind Naren Kumar in the championship standings, the six-time Indian champion won’t be at Rally China next month. With drivers allowed to score points in maximum six of seven rounds, Naren has completed his season with a four point lead over Rifat, and just single point ahead of Hiroshi.

Speaking from Jakata, the young Indonesian Sunkar is confident he can beat the experienced Yanagisawa. “The points standing is still wide open for fourth, with Hiroshi and Naren Kumar.”

“In China, it’s narrow and twisty in some stages, and the other stages are very dangerous. But my car this year is so much better than last year. The car is so easy to handle, but Hiroshi is driving the same car. It will be tough competition but, for sure, I’ll do better than the previous rally in Makassar.”

Part of Sungkars confidence is due to the improvement he has seen in himself, the Motor Image team working with Rifat to improve his skills in the car. “They have helped improve my speed and consistency, and my team-mates Cody and Toshi Arai have helped me a lot to improve my speed. And the other ones are my mechanics; because of them, I am driving a proper rally car that can compete in the top three positions.”

The other area Sungkar has improved is with his pace notes. Bringing in the experienced Bill Hayes to sit in the co-driver seat for Rally Japan has paid dividends in the second half of the season, although adjusting to pace notes in English took some time.

“That was difficult for one event. But after that I had a big improvement in the notes. In English, the information is fixed. (Before) in Indonesian…we used a lot of ‘maybe’ in every corner…it was not 100% sure. But after learning from Bill, I found a lot of improvement and he taught me how to make proper and consistent notes.”

And while Rifats immediate goal is capture fourth place in the championship, he’s already looking to 2008 and beyond, having signed for a second year with Motor Image. “In terms of the Indonesian championship, the APRC is big, big stepping stone for me. My (goal) for the first year is to compete against those guys who have (a lot of) experience in the APRC. I believe that in my third year I can compete in the top three, and hopefully in the fourth year I can be the APRC champion. After that, I’ll be looking for (a drive in) in either the PWRC or JWRC.”

SINGAPORE: A group of students from the Institute of Technical Education (ITE) helped build the car that has been winning at the Asia Pacific Rally Championship (APRC).

The final leg will be held in China in November, but Cody Crocker has already gathered enough points to clinch his second APRC title.

Back in Singapore, at the Subaru Hub in Toa Payoh where the car was assembled, there is a great sense of achievement, especially for the ITE students who helped build the car Cody drives. More…

Photo courtesy of MotorImage.

Rally Drivers Team of Finland organised a special ‘Champions’ event, run in southern Finland over the final weekend of September. The competition pitted the three Finnish 2007 rally champions; Group-A winner Jussi Välimäki, and Group-N champs Jari Ketomaa and Joonas Lindroos.

The event was contested on a single stage, driven first in a Group-N Opel Astra and then in a Group-A Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution III.

Lindroos grabbed the early lead after the three completed their first run in the Astra. But Valimaki put his APRC experience to good use when the trio tackled the course in the more powerful, turbo-charged, Lancer.

Three-tenths of a second slower than Lindroos after the first pass, Valimaki edged out Ketomaa the second time around, making him the overall winner the event and claiming the title of Finnish ‘Champion of the Champions’.

Overall results:
Jussi Valimaki: 3:25.10
Joonas Lindroos: 3:26.22
Jari Ketomaa: 3:26.40