Petter Solberg (Norway) won the 3rd round of the Asia Pacific Rally Championship, Rally of New Zealand driving a Ford Focus. And by taking second place points Possum Bourne (New Zealand) in a Subaru Impreza now leads the championship race.

Third overall in New Zealand and winner in Group N was Manfred Stohl (Austria) in a Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VI. The previous championship leader in the APRC, Karamjit Singh (Malaysia) driving a Group N, Proton finished the event, but out of the points.

However Singh is still in second place overall in the championship after his win in the first round, Rally of Indonesia. The other title contender Katsuhiko Taguchi (Japan) in a Group A Mitsubishi Lancer crashed out of the rally on the first stage after just 12 kilometres of rallying.