2012 Asia-Pacific Rally Championship Explained

The 2012 Asia-Pacific Rally Championship season is an international rally championship sanctioned by the FIA. The championship is contested by a combination of regulations with Group N competing directly against Super 2000 cars for points. Australian driver Chris Atkinson won the championship he narrowly lost the previous year, beating the Proton R3 Rally Team he raced for in 2011. His Škoda Fabia won the Rally of Whangarei as well as his home event the International Rally of Queensland as well as finishing second in New Caledonia, Malaysia and China, building up a lead his 2011 teammate and defending champion Alister McRae could not catch once his Proton Satria Neo started winning at the Malaysian Rally and the season ending China Rally. The only other rally winners were Indian Skoda driver Gaurav Gill at the Rallye de Nouvelle Calédonie and Malaysian Proton driver Karamjit Singh. Super 2000 cars dominated results with only New Zealand driver Brian Green finishing in the top three at any event in a Group N car.

Selected entries

The following teams and drivers represent the major entries participating in the 2012 season:

ConstructorCarEntrantDriverCo-driverRounds
ProtonProton Satria Neo S2000 Proton Motorsports Alister McRae Bill HayesAll
Per-Gunnar Andersson Emil Axelsson1–4
Juha Salo Marko Salminen5–6
Proton Satria Neo Proton R3 Cusco Rally Team Karamjit Singh Vivek Ponnusamy1, 3–6
Akira Bamba Takahiro Yasui1, 3–6
Kenneth Koh Jagdev Singh1, 3–6
Sanjay Takle Musa Sherif1, 3–6
ŠkodaŠkoda Fabia S2000 Team MRF Chris Atkinson Stéphane Prévot1–4, 6
Gaurav Gill Glenn MacNeallAll
MitsubishiMitsubishi Lancer Evo X Green Motorsport Brian Green Fleur Pedersen1
Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX2–3
SubaruSubaru Impreza WRX STI MRU Motorsports4–6
Cusco Racing Shuhei Muta Hajime Hoshino5

Race calendar and results

The 2012 APRC is as follows:[1]

RoundRally namePodium finishersStatistics
RankDriverCarTimeStagesLengthStartersFinishers
1 Rally of Whangarei
(30 March – 1 April)
1 Chris AtkinsonŠkoda Fabia S20002:50:16.116283.28 km2217
2 Per-Gunnar AnderssonProton Satria Neo S20002:50:44.3
3 Gaurav GillŠkoda Fabia S20002:52:51.9
2 Rallye de Nouvelle Calédonie
(28–29 April)
align=center 1 Gaurav GillŠkoda Fabia S2000align=center 2:52:35.919266.49 km114
align=center 2 Chris AtkinsonŠkoda Fabia S2000align=center 2:57:28.1
align=center 3 Brian GreenMitsubishi Lancer Evo IXalign=center 3:08:21.6
3 Rally Queensland
(26–27 May)
align=center 1 Chris AtkinsonŠkoda Fabia S2000align=center 2:20:52.419235.86 km1410
align=center 2 Alister McRaeProton Satria Neo S2000align=center 2:24.50.3
align=center 3 Michael Boaden (ARC)Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IXalign=center 2:25.33.5
4 Malaysian Rally
(14–15 July)
align=center 1 Alister McRaeProton Satria Neo S2000align=center 2:57:31.515235.28 km149
align=center 2 Chris AtkinsonŠkoda Fabia S2000align=center 3:22:56.6
align=center 3 Brian GreenSubaru Impreza WRX STIalign=center 3:24:08.1
5 Rally Hokkaido
(15–16 September)
align=center 1 Karamjit SinghProton Satria Neoalign=center 2:30:28.318220.48 km4128
align=center 2 Akira BambaProton Satria Neoalign=center 2:33:58.1
align=center 3 Brian GreenSubaru Impreza WRX STIalign=center 2:34:29.0
6 China Rally
(26–28 October)
align=center 1 Alister McRaeProton Satria Neo S2000align=center 03:02:33.113230.96 km10 9
align=center 2 Chris AtkinsonŠkoda Fabia S2000align=center 03:04:19.6
align=center 3 Juha SaloProton Satria Neo S2000align=center 03:09:31.7

Championship standings

The 2012 APRC for Drivers points is as follows:

PositionDriverVehicle
NZL

NCL

AUS

MAL

JPN

CHN
Total
1 Chris AtkinsonŠkoda Fabia S20001 122 91 122 72 10154
2 Alister McRaeProton Satria Neo S20004 4Ret 72 71 8Ret 51 10121
3 Brian GreenMitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX5 23 63 43 43 83 5114
4 Gaurav GillŠkoda Fabia S20003 61 10Ret 7Ret 5Ret 7Ret 782
5 Karamjit SinghProton Satria Neo6Ret4 41 84 372
6 Akira BambaProton Satria NeoRet5 25 12 55 157
7 Per-Gunnar AnderssonProton Satria Neo S20002 12Ret 24 4Ret 755
8 Kenneth KohProton Satria Neo7Ret74 2634
9 Sanjay TakleProton Satria Neo866Ret 1727
Note: 112 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 are two bonus legs for each rally.

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: 2012 Events Calendar . FIA Asia-Pacific Rally Championship . 2012-04-09 . https://web.archive.org/web/20120426220557/http://www.fiaaprc.com/2012-calendar . 2012-04-26 . dead .