2012 Asia-Pacific Rally Championship

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 Malaysia Proton Motorsports United Kingdom Alister McRae Australia Bill Hayes All
Sweden Per-Gunnar Andersson Sweden Emil Axelsson 1–4
Finland Juha Salo Finland Marko Salminen 5–6
Proton Satria Neo Malaysia Proton R3 Cusco Rally Team Malaysia Karamjit Singh Malaysia Vivek Ponnusamy 1, 3–6
Japan Akira Bamba Japan Takahiro Yasui 1, 3–6
Malaysia Kenneth Koh Malaysia Jagdev Singh 1, 3–6
India Sanjay Takle India Musa Sherif 1, 3–6
Škoda Škoda Fabia S2000 India Team MRF Australia Chris Atkinson Belgium Stéphane Prévot 1–4, 6
India Gaurav Gill Australia Glenn MacNeall All
Mitsubishi Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X New Zealand Green Motorsport New Zealand Brian Green New Zealand Fleur Pedersen 1
Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX 2–3
Subaru Subaru Impreza WRX STI New Zealand MRU Motorsports 4–6
Japan Cusco Racing Japan Shuhei Muta Japan Hajime Hoshino 5

Race calendar and results

The 2012 APRC is as follows:[1]

Round Rally name Podium finishers Statistics
Rank Driver Car Time Stages Length Starters Finishers
1 New Zealand Rally of Whangarei
(30 March – 1 April)		 1 Australia Chris Atkinson Škoda Fabia S2000 2:50:16.1 16 283.28 km 22 17
2 Sweden Per-Gunnar Andersson Proton Satria Neo S2000 2:50:44.3
3 India Gaurav Gill Škoda Fabia S2000 2:52:51.9
2 France Rallye de Nouvelle Calédonie
(28–29 April)		 1 India Gaurav Gill Škoda Fabia S2000 2:52:35.9 19 266.49 km 11 4
2 Australia Chris Atkinson Škoda Fabia S2000 2:57:28.1
3 New Zealand Brian Green Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX 3:08:21.6
3 Australia Rally Queensland
(26–27 May)		 1 Australia Chris Atkinson Škoda Fabia S2000 2:20:52.4 19 235.86 km 14 10
2 United Kingdom Alister McRae Proton Satria Neo S2000 2:24.50.3
3 Australia Michael Boaden (ARC) Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX 2:25.33.5
4 Malaysia Malaysian Rally
(14–15 July)		 1 United Kingdom Alister McRae Proton Satria Neo S2000 2:57:31.5 15 235.28 km 14 9
2 Australia Chris Atkinson Škoda Fabia S2000 3:22:56.6
3 New Zealand Brian Green Subaru Impreza WRX STI 3:24:08.1
5 Japan Rally Hokkaido
(15–16 September)		 1 Malaysia Karamjit Singh Proton Satria Neo 2:30:28.3 18 220.48 km 41 28
2 Japan Akira Bamba Proton Satria Neo 2:33:58.1
3 New Zealand Brian Green Subaru Impreza WRX STI 2:34:29.0
6 China China Rally
(26–28 October)		 1 United Kingdom Alister McRae Proton Satria Neo S2000 03:02:33.1 13 230.96 km 10 9
2 Australia Chris Atkinson Škoda Fabia S2000 03:04:19.6
3 Finland Juha Salo Proton Satria Neo S2000 03:09:31.7

Championship standings

The 2012 APRC for Drivers points is as follows:

Position Driver Vehicle New Zealand
NZL		 France
NCL		 Australia
AUS		 Malaysia
MAL		 Japan
JPN		 China
CHN		 Total
1 Australia Chris Atkinson Škoda Fabia S2000 1 12 2 9 1 12 2 7 2 10 154
2 United Kingdom Alister McRae Proton Satria Neo S2000 4 4 Ret 7 2 7 1 8 Ret 5 1 10 121
3 New Zealand Brian Green Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX 5 2 3 6 3 4 3 4 3 8 3 5 114
4 India Gaurav Gill Škoda Fabia S2000 3 6 1 10 Ret 7 Ret 5 Ret 7 Ret 7 82
5 Malaysia Karamjit Singh Proton Satria Neo 6 Ret 4 4 1 8 4 3 72
6 Japan Akira Bamba Proton Satria Neo Ret 5 2 5 1 2 5 5 1 57
7 Sweden Per-Gunnar Andersson Proton Satria Neo S2000 2 12 Ret 2 4 4 Ret 7 55
8 Malaysia Kenneth Koh Proton Satria Neo 7 Ret 7 4 2 6 34
9 India Sanjay Takle Proton Satria Neo 8 6 6 Ret 1 7 27
Key
Colour Result
Gold Winner
Silver 2nd place
Bronze 3rd place
Green Points finish
Blue Non-points finish
Non-classified finish (NC)
Purple Did not finish (Ret)
Black Excluded (EX)
Disqualified (DSQ)
White Did not start (DNS)
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 are two bonus legs for each rally.

References
  1. "2012 Events Calendar". FIA Asia-Pacific Rally Championship. Archived from the original on 2012-04-26. Retrieved 2012-04-09.
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