The final round of the 2010 APRC the China Rally begins tomorrow (Friday).

The weather so far has remained dry, but cool with a lot of haze. The forecast is for the current conditions to continue through the weekend.

The stages are in good condition. This year there is a high percentage of concrete roads and these will be slippery at least for the first pass, as there is a fine dust and sometimes gravel on top.

Katsu Taguchi is fired up to win the drivers championship, but then so is his team-mate Gaurav Gill – the MRF pair are only separated by 3 points.

It will be a good battle to watch and Rifat Sungkar will be keeping a close eye on the fortunes of the two MRF drivers, as he still has a mathematical chance at the title.

Proton are anxiously waiting the arrival of their engines, they’re currently stuck in China customs. However according to APRC coordinator Murray Brown they are cleared and on their way to the service park.

With Stephan Prevot at Cyprus Rally this weekend, Ben Atkinson joins brother Chris as co-driver.

Cusco are back in the series with two Mitsubishi’s for Hiroshi Yanagisawa and Yuya Sumiyama and a Suzuki Swift for Akira Bamba.

Adding spice to the event are wildcards Liu Chaodong, Li Wei, Xu Jun and Wei Hongje.

Shakedown is at 1530 this afternoon and the official start and Stage 1 1430 tomorrow.