A Working Group meeting, for the Asia-Pacific Rally Championship was held in Singapore on July 14. It was attended by ASNs and promoters represented in the Championship as well as Rally Commission members.

A wide range of subjects was discussed. Following is a summary of the main recommendations. These will be presented to the next Rally Commission meeting and if agreed there, to the World Motor Sport Council.

Mr Wan Heping, from the Federation of Automobile Sports of the People’s Republic of China was appointed to the Executive of the Working Group. He joins the Chairman, Mr Nazir Hoosein (IND), Mr Morrie Chandler (NZ) and Mr Garry Connelly (AUS) on the Executive.

Currently there are seven events in the Championship and competitors must undertake to nominate and take part in six. Once again, the Working Group will propose that the number of events be reduced to six with all rounds to count. The final decision will be taken by the World Council if this proposal is approved by the FIA Rally Commission.

Some minor changes have been made in areas where the wording was ambiguous, but there are no major changes proposed to the sporting Regulations for the APRC.

The importance of showing potential sponsors that the Championship can provide value and stability was acknowledged. One area that was addressed is consistency between events. In 2006 efforts have already been made by introducing a standard format for the finish ceremony and a schedule for publication and distribution of documents as well as a set format. For 2007 a recommendation will be made to introduce a regulation stating the minimum requirements for the design and layout of the start and finish podiums.

There will also be more consistency in the procedures for media accreditation including provision of permanent passes for media that are accredited for the whole Championship.

The Championship has received world-wide TV coverage in 2006, helped by APRC TV and also by the crews that are supporting the Indonesia Rally Team (Metro), Wanyu Rally Team (Guandong TV) and the MRF team (India – various). There was discussion about how to manage TV crews on event, and this was referred to the Executive group for further input.

The next event on the APRC Calendar for 2006 will be the Rally of Malaysia, taking place in from 18 – 20 August.