2017 Asia-Pacific Rally Championship

The 2017 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 R competing directly against Super 2000 cars for points.

The championship began in New Zealand on 28 April and concluded in India on 26 November. It was held over five rallies. A sixth rally, the third round, Zhangye Rally scheduled to be held in China was cancelled.

The championship was won for the third time by the reigning champion, Indian driver Gaurav Gill driving a Škoda Fabia R5. Gill had previously won the championship in 2013 and 2016. Gill was first or second in each of the five rallies, winning his home rally the Coffee Day Rally as well as rallies in New Zealand and Japan. His Team MRF team mate, Norwegian rallyist Ole Christian Veiby was runner up in the championship, taking the remain two victories in Australia and Malaysia. Swedish driver Robert Blomberg was third in the title driving a Mitsubishi Mirage R5. Blomberg finished ahead of Veiby in Japan, the only APRC driver to beat either Team MRF Škoda driver. Veiby won the Pacific Cup held over just the two Pacific division rallies after New Caledonia was dropped from the schedule two years ago. Gill won the Asian cup held over the three events held in the Asian division.

Event calendar and results

The 2017 APRC is as follows:

Round Rally name Podium finishers Statistics
Rank Driver Car Time Stages Length Starters Finishers
1 New Zealand International Rally of Whangarei
(28–30 April)[1]
1 India Gaurav Gill Škoda Fabia R5 2:35:06.8 15 248.77 km 61 27
2 Norway Ole Christian Veiby Škoda Fabia R5 2:37:09.6
3 New Zealand Matt Summerfield Subaru Impreza WRX STi 2:42:00.3
2 Australia National Capital Rally
(26–28 May)[2]
1 Norway Ole Christian Veiby Škoda Fabia R5 2:15:11.2 13 212.67 km 14 12
2 India Gaurav Gill Škoda Fabia R5 2:16:00.5
3 Finland Jari Ketomaa Mitsubishi Mirage R5 2:17:16.8
3 Malaysia International Rally of Johor
(11–13 August)[3]
1 Norway Ole Christian Veiby Škoda Fabia R5 3:02:39.1 13 216.66 km 29 27
2 India Gaurav Gill Škoda Fabia R5 3:07:20.4
3 Finland Jari Ketomaa Mitsubishi Mirage R5 3:07:39.5
4 Japan Rally Hokkaido
(15–17 September)[4]
1 India Gaurav Gill Škoda Fabia R5 1:53:21.8 17 193.24 km 64 48
2 Japan Toshihiro Arai Subaru WRX Sti 1:55:46.7
3 Japan Norihiko Katsuta Subaru WRX Sti 1:57:43.2
5 India Coffee Day India Rally
(21-26 November)[5]
1 India Gaurav Gill Škoda Fabia R5 3:20:19.8 17 207.54 km
2 Norway Ole Christian Veiby Škoda Fabia R5 3:37:58.2
3 India Abhilash Pallath Ganesh Subaru Impreza STi N14 3:42:36.4

Championship standings

The 2017 APRC for Drivers points was as follows:[6]

Pos. Driver Vehicle New Zealand
NZL
Australia
AUS
Malaysia
MAL
Japan
JPN
India
IND
Total
1 India Gaurav Gill Škoda Fabia R5 1 13 2 12 2 12 1 13 1 13 174
2 Norway Ole Christian Veiby Škoda Fabia R5 2 13 1 14 1 13 3 7 2 12 160
3 Sweden Robert Blomberg Mitsubishi Mirage R5 3 9 4 8 4 7 2 11 92
4 Finland Jari Ketomaa Mitsubishi Mirage R5 Ret 5 3 10 3 11 Ret 56
5 India Abhilash Pallath Ganesh Subaru Impreza STi N14 4 7 5 6 Ret 4 Ret 6 45
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 14 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 New Zealand
NZL
Australia
AUS
Total
1 Norway Ole Christian Veiby Škoda Fabia R5 1 14 1 14 78
2 Japan Fuyuhiko Takahashi Subaru Impreza WRX STi 2 11 4 8 49
3 India Abhilash Pallath Ganesh Subaru Impreza STi N14 3 9 3 10 49
4 Finland Jari Ketomaa Mitsubishi Mirage R5 Ret 6 2 12 36

Asia Cup

Pos. Driver Vehicle Malaysia
MAL
Japan
JPN
India
IND
Total
1 India Gaurav Gill Škoda Fabia R5 1 14 1 14 1 14 117
2 Sweden Robert Blomberg Mitsubishi Mirage R5 5 7 2 11 46
3 India Sanjay Takale Mitsubishi Mirage R5 4 7 3 5 39
4 Japan Yuya Sumiyama Škoda Fabia R5 3 10 Ret 6 31
5 New Zealand Michael Young Subaru Impreza STi N16 2 12 Ret 30

References

  1. "International Rally of Whangarei 2017". EWRC-Results.com. EWRC-Results. 5 October 2017. Retrieved 1 June 2018.
  2. "National Capital Rally - APRC 2017". EWRC-Results.com. EWRC-Results. 12 June 2017. Retrieved 1 June 2018.
  3. "41. International Rally of Johor 2017". EWRC-Results.com. EWRC-Results. 29 August 2017. Retrieved 1 June 2018.
  4. "16. Rally Hokkaido 2017". EWRC-Results.com. EWRC-Results. 20 September 2017. Retrieved 1 June 2018.
  5. "Coffee Day India Rally APRC 2017". EWRC-Results.com. EWRC-Results. 26 November 2017. Retrieved 1 June 2018.
  6. "2017 FIA Asia-Pacific Rally Championship; Points Summary; Points Standing After Round 5; Final Classification" (PDF). Asia-Pacific Rally Championship. Confederation of Australian Motor Sport Ltd. Retrieved 1 June 2018.
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