Gaurav Gill’s campaign to equal Cody Crocker’s record this year; Origins of APRC

Bengaluru, 22 April 2023: Arjuna awardee Gaurav Gill will not be taking part in the International Rally of Whangarei from May 12 to 14. But the ‘King of Indian Motorsports’ has already qualified for the APRC Final round to be held in Indonesia in November where the other qualifiers from Asia Cup and Pacific Cup will vie for the coveted APRC title. Gill, who won three titles in his career will be gunning to equal the record of Cody Crocker.

Origins of APRC

Asia Pacific Rally Championship is a premier motorsports regional car rally approved and run under the aegis of FIA, the international Motorsports body. It was started it 1988 to provide a chance for better local participation and to reduce costs for the competitors. Besides Formula 1 and MotoGP, the most popular forms of motorsports in the World, there are a few other speed sports which mix a dash of adventure and adrenaline flow that have captivated the hearts of speed lovers. World Rally Championship (WRC) and Dakar are such ones, they are bigger motorsports events that test skill, speed, strength, endurance, and precision, and have a huge fan following similar to the top two, the F1 and MotoGP.

Both WRC and Dakar are off-road and have captured the imagination of the fans. So in 1988, WRC became popular and the Governing body of the Sport, FIA thought it fit to capture the audience in Asia and Pacific continents that together have 40 per cent or more of the World’s fans. And thus, APRC was born, and most of the top WRC drivers were eager to compete and beat the best in our region in the early years. As such, more than half of the WRC rounds had APRC events run concurrently in the initial years.

Huge transport costs & lack of locally-developed cars, a set-back

Over the years, the competition petered down to regional drivers due to the costs involved in transporting cars and the lack of development of a rally car in Asia. Naturally, Australia and New Zealand dominated but it was a Japanese driver Kenjiro Shinozuka in a Mitsubishi Galant VR-4 who won the inaugural APRC. Many rallies used to double up as the WRC rounds and it was a mind-boggling response from Asians and Aussies that turned motorsport discipline into a spectator sport. The Japanese manufacturers, Mazda, Mitsubishi, Toyota and Subaru were all there and our very own Karamjit Singh too called the shots, not long after. The Indian-origin Malaysian driver was the first to win the championship from emerging APRC nations.

Flying Sikh of Motorsports

After the turn of the century, Karamjit Singh, nick-named motorsports’ ‘Flying Sikh’, won his first title in 2001 and repeated the feat in 2002 before the MRF Tyres entry as MRF Racing, stopped him when German Armin Kremer won the maiden title for the Indian outfit in 2003. Karamjiat came back the next year with another victory in 2004 for his third and last win in a Proton Pert.

In later years, MRF Tyres dominated the scene with an overall haul of nine victories, the only team to have nine wins. But MRF played safe, recruiting only foreign drivers after initially deciding to field a couple of Indian drivers. However, Arjuna Awardee Gaurav Gill changed that with his maiden win in 2013 and went on to become a three-time champ. In fact, but for a narrow miss, he would have been a four-time champion.

Cody Crocker, is the only driver to get 4 APRC titles

Nevertheless, the Indian presence was truly satisfying with the exploits of Gill, who showed brute speed and magical memory of the speed stages which resulted in his domination. Some of the names who dominated APRC over the years are British driver Possum Bourne, Swedish driver Kenneth Eriksson, Karamjit Singh, Aussie Cody Crocker (4 titles), who had a 4-win row from 2006 to 2009, and then our very own Gaurav Gill who notched up two more wins in 2016 and 2017, to make it 3 APRC titles. Along with seven Indian National titles and a good performance in WRC saw he become the first Indian in motorsports to get the coveted Arjuna Award.

APRC took a two-year forced break due to the travel restrictions arising out of COVID-19, Kiwi Hayden Paddon won after the hiatus and is the reigning 2022 champion.

Format change

In 2008, the format changed to split the regional event to Asia Cup and Pacific Cup, two different legs for the two continents but they were not given a continental championship status as APRC remained the ultimate goal as qualifiers take a shot at the APRC crown in the finals. While Gaurav Gill won the Asia Cup twice in a Skoda Fabia R5, the MRF team won five times in the Pacific Cup. This year, 2023, Gill, along with a new co-driver Aniruddha Rangnekar, donned the colours of JK Tyre. He dominated the tricky terrain of the South India Rally, which he lost to another Indian pair Karna Kadur and Nikhil Pai in 2022. The win in Chennai began Gill’s campaign for a fourth APRC title. The winners of different Asia and Pacific rounds will vie for honours at the grand finale in Indonesia in November.

One of the reasons the costs increase for participants is the transportation of vehicles. The split into Cups and a one-round finale are working to reduce the costs, but it also took its toll on entry numbers. When India, took its Indian National Rally Championship to North East a few years back, the organisers could not sustain the venue in the calendar. But in 2020, the then INRC Promoter Vamcy Merla took care of the expenses for transportation of all cars and it saw record numbers from both North and South take part in the Indian Nationals.

Efforts on to boost driver participation in APRC

Apart from transportation costs, there were other setbacks. There is no truly locally built car and the AP4 cars are becoming expensive for the participants and teams and numbers started shrinking. Then again Vamcy Merla, a former Indian rally driver and motorsports lover from Andhra Pradesh, was roped in by the APRC Working Group chairman and the man who brought Formula 1 to India, Vicky Chandhok, to promote the Indian round. Soon the entries improved from four to 17. Now he also supported the Prize Money for the Pacific Cup winners in Rally Otago and has contributed to the organisers for running the International Rally of Whangarei, apart from doubling the prize money for the APRC segment winners.

A people’s man Chandhok is known to firefight and get motorsports events on the road in the worst of times. He has handled many such situations and his current role in rescuing APRC is not surprising. No wonder, Vicky Chandhok was unanimously asked to continue as the Chairman even after his term was over a couple of years back. Together the two Indians are reviving the regional championship to its past glory. With like-minded people and sincere efforts, the process that began should be sustained and it will only help the drivers and teams by providing an international experience.

The next round of the APRC Pacific round will be in New Zealand, the Whangarei Rally from May 12 to 14. There will be 18 Special Stages over 264 kilometres on what is widely regarded as the world’s best gravel rally roads.

The fast-cambered roads of the north will host the second round of the 2023 Brian Green Property Group New Zealand Rally Championship. The event will also see the top-3 registered Drivers from Rally Otago and Rally of Whangarei qualify for a place in the Asia Pacific Rally Championship final in late November.