The 2010 Asia-Pacific Rally Championship season is an international rally championship sanctioned by the FIA.
With four-time champion Cody Crocker no longer contesting the series, it was expected to be a more open championship, and so it has proven. After five rounds of the series 1999 champion Katsuhiko Taguchi holds a three-point lead over fellow Mitsubishi driver Gaurav Gill. Taguchi won the first event of the series at Malaysia and was first registered competitor home in Japan behind veteran campaigner Toshi Arai (Subaru), but disappointing rallies in New Zealand and Australia left his early lead vulnerable. Gill was second in Malaysia and collected the points for third in Japan. Gill broke through for a points win at the Rally of Queensland, finishing over two minutes behind overall event winner, Australian Rally Championship competitor, Simon Evans (Subaru).
Subaru driver Rifat Sungkar got his breakthrough points win at the New Caledonia rally, finishing second behind Pacific Cup registered racer Brendan Reeves (Subaru), putting the Indonesian driver in a clear third.
The only factory team in the series the Proton R3 Malaysia Rally Team, entered a pair of S2000 class Proton Satrias for former WRC drivers Chris Atkinson and Alister McRae. The pair have pushed hard for podium finishes but have had reliability issues developing completely new cars.
With the completion of Rallye de Nouvelle Calédonie, the Pacific Cup was completed. Australian driver Brendan Reeves rounded off the competition with an outright win and claiming the Pacific Cup, which takes in the Australia, New Zealand and New Caledonia rallies. Reeves scored almost double the points of New Zealand Production World Rally Championship competitor, Hayden Paddon (Mitsubishi). Paddon tied for second with Glen Raymond (Mitsubishi) and Brian Green.
The Asia Cup still has one round to run, Taguchi leads by two points over Gill with Hiroshi Yanagisawa third also in a Mitsubishi.
Race calendar and results
editThe 2010 APRC was as follows:[1]
| Round | Date | Event | Location | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | April 24–25 | Malaysian Rally |  Malaysia
|
 Katsuhiko Taguchi
|
| 2 | May 22–23 | Rally Hokkaido | Hokkaidō, Japan
|
Toshi Arai*[2]
|
| 3 | July 3–4 | Rally of Whangarei |  Whangārei, New Zealand
|
Hayden Paddon
|
| 4 | July 31–August 1 | Rally Queensland |  Imbil, Australia
|
Simon Evans*[3]
|
| 5 | August 28–29 | Rallye de Nouvelle Calédonie |  Nouméa, New Caledonia
|
Brendan Reeves*
|
| 6 | September 25–26 | Rally Indonesia |  Indonesia
|
event cancelled[4] |
| 7 | November 6–7 | China Rally |  China
|
Yuya Sumiyama*
|
* Not registered for APRC points.
Championship standings
editThe 2010 APRC for Drivers points was as follows:[5]
References
edit- ^ "2010 Events Calendar". FIA Asia-Pacific Rally Championship. Archived from the original on 2010-06-26. Retrieved 2010-09-04.
- ^ "Home". 15 May 2020.
- ^ "Home". 15 May 2020.
- ^ Wade, Giles (2010-08-26). "Rally Indonesia cancelled, APRC reduced to six rounds". MaxRally. Mediatica. Archived from the original on 28 August 2010. Retrieved 2010-09-08.
- ^ "2010 FIA Asia-Pacific Rally Championship for Drivers" (PDF). Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-07-11. Retrieved 2010-11-22.