APRC 2014

[kober]

The calendar, along with a nice brochure is out:

12-13 Apr  New Zealand    APRC          Pacific   Junior
26-27 Apr  India                 Asia
17-18 May  New Caledonia  APRC          Pacific
21-22 Jun  Australia      APRC          Pacific   Junior
16-17 Aug  Malaysia       APRC   Asia             Junior
27-28 Sep  Japan          APRC   Asia             Junior
08-09 Nov  China          APRC   Asia
13-14 Dec  Thailand              Asia

[Mirek]

According to press conference of Škoda held today Jan Kopecký will compete in APRC.

[Andre Oliveira]

Kopecky deserves WRC. He did very well with old Fabia WRC. Skoda have market on Asia?

[Mirek]

Kopecky deserves WRC. He did very well with old Fabia WRC. Skoda have market on Asia?

Yes, it has. It has even manufacturing plants in China and India.

[vino_93]

It's good for the championship to have a good driver as him. It can attract other good guys to fight with him.
If he is running with MRF, I hope Gill will be his teammate. He was pretty fast against Atkinson and Lappi, it could be an interesting opposition btw them.

[Mirek]

Yes, Škoda confirmed that Gill would stay with the team. So reigning APRC and ERC champion in one team Hopefully there will be some opposition also from other teams. I wonder how fast Jan can be on such unknown and almost all-gravel roads.

The swapping of faces between Škoda championships is obviously done for marketing reasons.

[vino_93]

new regulation for 2014 APRC :
cars built according G2 regulations in Australia will be allowed (similar to R3)
cars built under JN (Japan) regulations will be allowed too (for example some JN3 are Toyota GT86, Subaru BRZ, ...). The Toyota Vitz used by Young this year was a N car modified from JN2 regulation.
Example of JN cars : http://www.ewrc-results.com/final.php?e ... shiro-2013

[Plan9]

Will Jan be in the MRF team?

[Rally Hokkaido]

Yes, according to rumours at Rally of Thailand, Gill and Kopecky will be in a pair of brand new Fabia S2000 cars for the MRF-Skoda Team.
The two 2012 MRF cars have been sold to a Belgium=based team.
In other news, APRC privateer Dermott Malley has just bought the Ford Fiesta R5 car that Andreas Aigner drove this year. I expect his son, Patrick will drive it in 2014 APRC.

[vino_93]

Great to see another big car there. We'll see if Patrick Malley is able to fight sometime with them ...