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:
Constructor Car Entrant Driver Co-driver Rounds Proton Proton Satria Neo S2000 Proton Motorsports Alister McRae Bill Hayes All Per-Gunnar Andersson Emil Axelsson 1–4 Juha Salo Marko Salminen 5–6 Proton Satria Neo Proton R3 Cusco Rally Team Karamjit Singh Vivek Ponnusamy 1, 3–6 Akira Bamba Takahiro Yasui 1, 3–6 Kenneth Koh Jagdev Singh 1, 3–6 Sanjay Takle Musa Sherif 1, 3–6 Škoda Škoda Fabia S2000 Team MRF Chris Atkinson Stéphane Prévot 1–4, 6 Gaurav Gill Glenn MacNeall All Mitsubishi Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X Green Motorsport Brian Green Fleur Pedersen 1 Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX 2–3 Subaru Subaru Impreza WRX STI MRU Motorsports 4–6 Cusco Racing Shuhei Muta Hajime Hoshino 5
Race calendar and results
The 2012 APRC is as follows: Round Rally name Podium finishers Statistics Rank Driver Car Time Stages Length Starters Finishers 1 Rally of Whangarei(30 March – 1 April) 1 Chris Atkinson Škoda Fabia S2000 2:50:16.1 16283.28 km 22 172 Per-Gunnar Andersson Proton Satria Neo S2000 2:50:44.33 Gaurav Gill Škoda Fabia S2000 2:52:51.9 2 Rallye de Nouvelle Calédonie(28–29 April) 1 Gaurav Gill Škoda Fabia S2000 2:52:35.919266.49 km114 2 Chris Atkinson Škoda Fabia S2000 2:57:28.1 3 Brian Green Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX 3:08:21.6 3 Rally Queensland(26–27 May) 1 Chris Atkinson Škoda Fabia S2000 2:20:52.4 19235.86 km 14 10 2 Alister McRae Proton Satria Neo S2000 2:24.50.3 3 Michael Boaden (ARC) Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX 2:25.33.5 4 Malaysian Rally(14–15 July) 1 Alister McRae Proton Satria Neo S2000 2:57:31.5 15 235.28 km 14 9 2 Chris Atkinson Škoda Fabia S2000 3:22:56.6 3 Brian Green Subaru Impreza WRX STI 3:24:08.1 5 Rally Hokkaido(15–16 September) 1 Karamjit Singh Proton Satria Neo 2:30:28.3 18 220.48 km 41 28 2 Akira Bamba Proton Satria Neo 2:33:58.1 3 Brian Green Subaru Impreza WRX STI 2:34:29.0 6 China Rally(26–28 October) 1 Alister McRae Proton Satria Neo S2000 03:02:33.1 13 230.96 km 10 9 2 Chris Atkinson Škoda Fabia S2000 03:04:19.6 3 Juha Salo Proton Satria Neo S2000 03:09:31.7
Championship standings The 2012 APRC for Drivers points is as follows: Position Driver Vehicle NZL NCL AUS MAL JPN CHN Total 1 Chris Atkinson Škoda Fabia S2000 1 12 2 9 1 12 2 7 2 10154 2 Alister McRae Proton Satria Neo S2000 4 4 Ret 7 2 7 1 8 Ret 5 1 10121 3 Brian Green Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX 5 2 3 6 3 4 3 4 3 8 3 5114 4 Gaurav Gill Škoda Fabia S2000 3 6 1 10 Ret 7 Ret 5 Ret 7 Ret 782 5 Karamjit Singh Proton Satria Neo 6 Ret 4 4 1 8 4 372 6 Akira Bamba Proton Satria Neo Ret 5 2 5 1 2 5 5 157 7 Per-Gunnar Andersson Proton Satria Neo S2000 2 12 Ret 2 4 4 Ret 755 8 Kenneth Koh Proton Satria Neo 7 Ret 7 4 2 634 9 Sanjay Takle Proton Satria Neo 8 6 6 Ret 1 727 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 are two bonus legs for each rally.
References
External links Official website APRC Live Podcast APRC News and Video