2014 Asia-Pacific Rally Championship

2014 Asia-Pacific Rally Championship
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The 2014 Asia-Pacific Rally Championship season was an international rally championship sanctioned by the FIA. The championship was contested by a combination of regulations with Group N competing directly against Super 2000 cars for points.

The championship began in New Zealand on 11 April and concluded in China on 9 November. The Asia Cup sub-championship had been due to continue to a 7 December finish in Thailand, but this event was cancelled. The championship was held over six events with a candidate event included as part of the Asia Cup. A second candidate event in India was scheduled to be held in India but proximity of local parliamentary elections restricted the event's ability to upgrade competitive stages within the timeframe allowed by the early season. The rally was rescheduled until the end of the local season and its APRC status removed.

The championship was won by European champion Jan Kopecký driving a Team MRF prepared Škoda Fabia. Kopecký wrapped up the championship early after his victory at Rally Hokkaido, the third of his four victories in the six-event season.^[1][2] Defending champion Gaurav Gill won the other two rallies and held second in the championship until the final rally. Two late season failures allowed him to be overtaken by New Zealand Proton driver Michael Young. Škoda won the manufacturers championship from Mitsubishi. Team MRF – with drivers Kopecký and Gill – won all six rallies, winning the teams title from Japanese Subaru team Cusco Racing.^[3]

Kopecký won the Pacific Cup in dominant fashion with almost double the points of his nearest competitors. Young and Australian Mitsubishi driver Mark Pedder tied for second, with Young being awarded the runners up position on countback.

Japanese Subaru driver Yuya Sumiyama won the Asia Cup, finishing 50 points clear of Sri Lankan Subaru driver Dinesh Deheragoda. Gill faded to fourth in the Asia Cup after failing to finish at Rally Hokkaido and Rally China Longyou.

Selected entries

Icon	Cup
A	Asia Cup
P	Pacific Cup

Constructor	Car	Team	Driver	Co-driver	Cup	Class	Rounds
Mitsubishi	Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X	Mark Pedder	Mark Pedder	Claire Ryan	P	RC2	1
Škoda	Škoda Fabia S2000	Team MRF	Gaurav Gill	Glenn MacNeall		RC2	1
			Jan Kopecký	Pavel Dresler	P	RC2	1
		Young Motorsport TS Club	Jun Xu	Sheng Liu		RC2	1
Subaru	Subaru Impreza	Cusco Racing	Sanjay Takle	Sean F. Gregory		RC2	1
Proton	Proton Satria Neo		Michael Young	Erin Kelly		RC3	1
Renault	Renault Clio R3	Tom Wilde	Tom Wilde	Bill Hayes		RC3	1

Event calendar and results

The 2014 APRC was as follows:^[4]

Round	Rally name	Podium finishers				Statistics
		Rank	Driver	Car	Time	Stages	Length	Starters	Finishers
1	International Rally of Whangarei (11–13 April)[5]	1	Gaurav Gill	Škoda Fabia S2000	2:11:39.7	14	220.87 km	48	25
		2	Richard Mason	Subaru Impreza WRX STi	2:11:50.9
		3	Jan Kopecký	Škoda Fabia S2000	2:11:51.6
-	Rally of India (26–27 April)	event cancelled[6]
2	Rallye de Nouvelle-Calédonie (16–18 May)[7]	1	Emmanuel Guigou	Renault Clio R3	2:08:10.8	17	144.09 km	26	13
		2	Patrick Christian	Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX	2:13:43.8
		3	Claude Clavel	Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX	2:16:40.1
3	International Rally of Queensland (20–22 June)[8]	1	Jan Kopecký	Škoda Fabia S2000	2:20:09.1	15	222.30 km	51	28
		2	Scott Pedder	Renault Clio R3	2:21:18.4
		3	Brendan Reeves	Mazda 2	2:23:21.1
4	Malaysian Rally (15–17 August)[9]	1	Gaurav Gill	Škoda Fabia S2000	3:01:23.2	14	217.40 km	33	30
		2	Yuya Sumiyama	Subaru Impreza WRX STi	3:12:14.5
		3	Mark Pedder	Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X	3:14:25.7
5	Rally Hokkaido (26–28 September)[10]	1	Jan Kopecký	Škoda Fabia S2000	2:12:29.5	18	222.80 km	25	19
		2	Toshihiro Arai	Subaru Impreza WRX STi	2:13:11.8
		3	Hiroshi Yanagisawa	Subaru Impreza WRX STi	2:16:09.2
6	Rally China Longyou (7–9 November)[11]	1	Chris Atkinson	Volkswagen Golf SCRC	2:51:56.0	13	230.92 km	110	46
		2	Jan Kopecký	Škoda Fabia S2000	2:57:10.3
		3	Yuya Sumiyama	Subaru Impreza WRX STi	3:01:07.5
-	Thailand Rally (5–7 December)	event cancelled[12]

Championship standings

The 2014 APRC for Drivers points was as follows:^[13][14]

Pos. Driver Vehicle NZL NCL AUS MAL JPN CHN Total 1 Jan Kopecký Škoda Fabia S2000 2 ^13 1 ^10 1 ^14 Ret ^7 1 ^14 1 ^14 190 2 Michael Young Proton Satria Neo 6 ^4 3 ^9 5 ^6 5 ^5 4 ^9 2 ^12 118 3 Gaurav Gill Škoda Fabia S2000 1 ^13 2 ^10 Ret 1 ^13 Ret Ret 104 4 Xu Jun Škoda Fabia S2000 5 ^7 3 ^10 3 ^10 2 ^12 97 5 Mark Pedder Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X 3 ^10 Ret ^7 2 ^12 2 ^10 Ret 90 6 Sanjay Takale Subaru Impreza WRX STi 7 ^2 Ret ^5 6 ^4 4 ^7 3 ^9 68 7 Tom Wilde Renault Clio R3 4 ^7 Ret ^6 4 ^8 45

Colour Result Gold Winner Silver 2nd place Bronze 3rd place Green Points finish Blue Non-points finish Non-classified finish (NC) Purple Retired (DNF) Black Excluded (EX) Disqualified (DSQ) White Did not start (DNS) Cancelled (C) Blank Withdrew entry before the event (WD)

Note: ¹ – ¹² refers to the bonus points awarded for each leg of the rally for the first five place getters, 1st (7), 2nd (5), 3rd (3), 4th (2), 5th (1). There were two bonus legs for each rally.

Pacific Cup

Pos.	Driver	Vehicle	NZL	NCL	AUS	Total
1	Jan Kopecký	Škoda Fabia S2000	1 ^14	1 ^11	1 ^14	114
2	Michael Young	Proton Satria Neo	4 ^8	2 ^11	4 ^4	65
3	Mark Pedder	Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X	2 ^12	Ret ^7	2 ^10	65
4	Tom Wilde	Renault Clio R3	3 ^10	Ret ^6	3 ^6	46

Asia Cup

Pos.	Driver	Vehicle	MAL	JPN	CHN	Total
1	Yuya Sumiyama	Subaru Impreza WRX STi	2 ^11	1 ^14	1 ^14	107
2	Dinesh Deheragoda	Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X	6 ^3	5 ^6	2 ^12	57
3	Jun Xu	Škoda Fabia S2000	3 ^10	2 ^12		56
4	Sanjay Takale	Subaru Impreza WRX STi	5 ^7	3 ^10		42
5	Gaurav Gill	Škoda Fabia S2000	1 ^14	Ret	Ret	39
6	Tomohide Hasegawa	Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX	7 ^3	4 ^8		29
7	Mitsuhiro Kunisawa	Subaru Impreza WRX STi	4 ^7			19

References

1. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2014-11-29. Retrieved 2014-11-23.
4. "2014 Calendar". FIA Asia-Pacific Rally Championship. Retrieved 2014-03-14.

External links

• Official website
• APRC Live Podcast
• APRC News and Video