2014 Asia-Pacific Rally Championship

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 . 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 .^[3]

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

Japanese Subaru driver won the Asia Cup, finishing 50 points clear of Sri Lankan Subaru driver . 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
Škoda	Škoda Fabia S2000	Team MRF	Gaurav Gill	Glenn MacNeall		RC2	All
		Team MRF	Jan Kopecký	Pavel Dresler	P	RC2	All
		Young Motorsport TS Club		Sheng Liu		RC2	1, 3–5
Mitsubishi	Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X	Pedders Suspension		Claire Ryan	P	RC2	1–4
Mitsubishi	Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X			Dale Moscatt	P	RC2	6
Renault	Renault Clio R3			Bill Hayes		RC3	1–2
Renault	Renault Clio R3			Anthony McLoughlin		RC3	3
Proton	Proton Satria Neo	Cusco Racing		Erin Kelly		RC3	1
Proton	Proton Satria Neo			Malcolm Read		RC3	2–6
Subaru	Subaru Impreza WRX STI			Sean Gregory		RC2	1–5

Event calendar and results[]

The 2014 APRC was as follows:^[4]

Round	Rally name	Podium finishers				Statistics
Round	Rally name	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		Subaru Impreza WRX STi	2:11:50.9
		3	Jan Kopecký	Škoda Fabia S2000	2:11:51.6

-	(26–27 April)	event cancelled^[6]

2	Rallye de Nouvelle-Calédonie (16–18 May)^[7]	1		Renault Clio R3	2:08:10.8	17	144.09 km	26	13
		2		Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX	2:13:43.8
		3		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		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		Subaru Impreza WRX STi	3:12:14.5
		3		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		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		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		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		Škoda Fabia S2000	5 ⁷		3 ¹⁰	3 ¹⁰	2 ¹²		97
5		Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X	3 ¹⁰	Ret ⁷	2 ¹²	2 ¹⁰		Ret	90
6		Subaru Impreza WRX STi	7 ²	Ret ⁵	6 ⁴	4 ⁷	3 ⁹		68
7		Renault Clio R3	4 ⁷	Ret ⁶	4 ⁸				45

Key
Colour	Result
Gold	Winner
Silver	2nd place
Bronze	3rd place
Green	Points finish
Blue	Non-points finish
Blue	Non-classified finish (NC)
Purple	Did not finish (Ret)
Black	Excluded (EX)
Black	Disqualified (DSQ)
White	Did not start (DNS)
White	Cancelled (C)
Blank	Withdrew entry from 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		Proton Satria Neo	4 ⁸	2 ¹¹	4 ⁴	65
3		Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X	2 ¹²	Ret ⁷	2 ¹⁰	65
4		Renault Clio R3	3 ¹⁰	Ret ⁶	3 ⁶	46

Asia Cup[]

Pos.	Driver	Vehicle	MAL	JPN	CHN	Total
1		Subaru Impreza WRX STi	2 ¹¹	1 ¹⁴	1 ¹⁴	107
2		Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X	6 ³	5 ⁶	2 ¹²	57
3		Škoda Fabia S2000	3 ¹⁰	2 ¹²		56
4		Subaru Impreza WRX STi	5 ⁷	3 ¹⁰		42
5	Gaurav Gill	Škoda Fabia S2000	1 ¹⁴	Ret	Ret	39
6		Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX	7 ³	4 ⁸		29
7		Subaru Impreza WRX STi	4 ⁷			19

References[]

^ "Kopecky Wins APRC For Team MRF | World News Australian Rally Championship". Archived from the original on 2014-11-29. Retrieved 2014-11-23.
^ "Jan Kopecky wins APRC title - The Hindu". The Hindu.
^ http://fiaaprc.com/assets/2014/points-table-2014-after-round-6.pdf^{[bare URL PDF]}
^ "2014 Calendar". FIA Asia-Pacific Rally Championship. Retrieved 2014-03-14.^{[permanent dead link]}
^ http://www.ewrc-results.com/final.php?e=14453&t=International-Rally-of-Whangarei-2014
^ "2014 Indian Rally Championship calendar announced".
^ http://ewrc-results.com/final.php?e=14454&t=Rallye-de-Nouvelle-Caledonie-2014
^ http://www.ewrc-results.com/final.php?e=14455&t=International-Rally-of-Queensland-2014
^ http://www.ewrc-results.com/final.php?e=14456&t=Malaysian-Rally-2014
^ http://www.ewrc-results.com/final.php?e=14457&t=Rally-Hokkaido-2014
^ http://www.ewrc-results.com/final.php?e=14458&t=Rally-China-Longyou-2014
^ "Thailand Round Cancelled". 19 November 2014.
^ http://fiaaprc.com/assets/2014/points-table-2014-after-round-6.pdf^{[bare URL PDF]}
^ "Classifications | Federation Internationale de l'Automobile". Archived from the original on 2014-11-29. Retrieved 2014-11-23.

External links[]

[1] "Kopecky Wins APRC For Team MRF | World News Australian Rally Championship". Archived from the original on 2014-11-29. Retrieved 2014-11-23.

[2] "Jan Kopecky wins APRC title - The Hindu". The Hindu.

[3] ttp://fiaaprc.com/assets/2014/points-table-2014-after-round-6.pdf^{[bare URL PDF]}

[4] "2014 Calendar". FIA Asia-Pacific Rally Championship. Retrieved 2014-03-14.^{[permanent dead link]}

[5] ttp://www.ewrc-results.com/final.php?e=14453&t=International-Rally-of-Whangarei-2014

[6] "2014 Indian Rally Championship calendar announced".

[7] ttp://ewrc-results.com/final.php?e=14454&t=Rallye-de-Nouvelle-Caledonie-2014

[8] ttp://www.ewrc-results.com/final.php?e=14455&t=International-Rally-of-Queensland-2014

[9] ttp://www.ewrc-results.com/final.php?e=14456&t=Malaysian-Rally-2014

[10] ttp://www.ewrc-results.com/final.php?e=14457&t=Rally-Hokkaido-2014

[11] ttp://www.ewrc-results.com/final.php?e=14458&t=Rally-China-Longyou-2014

[12] "Thailand Round Cancelled". 19 November 2014.

[13] ttp://fiaaprc.com/assets/2014/points-table-2014-after-round-6.pdf^{[bare URL PDF]}

[14] "Classifications | Federation Internationale de l'Automobile". Archived from the original on 2014-11-29. Retrieved 2014-11-23.

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