What, When and Where:
The FIA Asia-Pacific Rally Championship is now firmly established as one of the premier regional championship in World Rallying.
Run in one of the world’s fastest growing economic regions, the FIA Asia-Pacific Rally Championship continues to attract the world’s best drivers, huge television audiences all over the world and spectators in their millions.
For sponsors, manufacturers and competitors each round provides excellent promotional opportunities with the diversity of each round adding to the appeal. The presence of companies of the stature of Subaru, MRF and Hella amongst others speaks for itself.
For 2004 the six Championship rounds will be run in Australia, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Japan, China and India.
Manufacturer and driver involvement continues to remain strong with vehicles from Subaru, Mitsubishi, Suzuki and Proton expected to compete.
In 2003 Mitsubishi were rewarded with the manufacturer’s trophy while German driver Armin Kremer won the drivers title.
The Format:
Six events in six different countries, each with its unique cultural and rallying characteristics. The events range from the open forestry roads of Australia to the fast-flowing, hard-based public roads of New Zealand, each with its own flavour.
The championship uses a similar competition structure and format as the FIA World Rally Championship. Organisers of the rounds have now incorporated the FIA “cloverleaf” format with the cars returning to the same Parc Ferme at the end of each day.
Vehicle eligibility is open to Production Cars (Group N), Touring Cars (Group A) (Groups A5, A6 & A7) excluding World Rally Cars and Group A8 cars, and Super 1600 subject to at least 5 cars being entered and registered for this class. With a Manufacturers trophy also being presented in each class.
Group A and N cars whose homologations have expired up to a maximum of 4 years before the beginning of the current year are permitted to participate in the rallies of the championship, however drivers and co-drivers of these cars cannot score points in the Championship.
Points’ scoring is based on the finishing order in each round to calculate the various classifications of the Championship, with points the same as that for the World Rally Championship. (10/8/6/5/4/3/2/1)
The FIA Asia-Pacific Rally Championship will incorporate the “SUPERally” concept where bonus points are awarded for the results of each leg of each event. Competitors who fail to finish any leg of a rally will be permitted to restart the next and subsequent legs.
To be eligible for Championship points, each entrant, each driver and each co-driver must register individually with the FIA by Friday 21 May 2004. The process of registration includes an undertaking to take part in a minimum of 3 events in Asia and 2 events in the Pacific.
With the wide range of categories and awards the Asia-Pacific Championship provides an excellent opportunity for manufacturers and competitors to promote their vehicles ability and their own driving skills.
As the media audience and spectator numbers continue to rapidly increase the popularity of this well-established Championship will continue to grow.
Television audience will exceed a potential worldwide viewing audience in excess of 467 million viewers.
2004 FIA Asia Pacific Rally Championship calendar:
Round 1 Subaru Rally of Canberra 7-9 May
Round 2 Rallye de Nouvelle Caledonie 29-30 May
Round 3 Hella Battery Town Rally of Rotorua 9-10 July
Round 4 Rally Japan 4-5 September
Round 5 China Rally 2004 23-24 October
Round 6 MRF India Rally 4-5 December
