MRF Jan Kopecky wins Rally of China; Gill crashes out: APRC
November 9, 2014: Team MRF completed their best season ever in the Asia-Pacific Rally Championship (APRC) by winning all six races in the 2014 Championship with Jan Kopecky coasting to the win in the China Rally Longyou. Kopecký driving an MRF Skoda Fabia S2000 convincingly won the China Rally reinforcing his and Skoda’s dominance of the series in 2014.
Kopecký’s task was made easier on Day 1 when team-mate Gaurav Gill who was leading the event at the time, hit a rock on Stage 5 that damaged the Skoda’s steering resulting in a heavy crash and retirement on Stage 6. Team MRF continued to prove that they are the team to beat after winning 3 titles in a row on MRF Tyres. MRF Tyres is the only Indian based tyre company to enjoy such success in international motorsport.
At the finish-line Kopecký said, “It’s been a great year and thanks a lot to the whole team it was a great opportunity in APRC and hopefully I can come back for some rallies in the future. I think the highlight is we won the championship, our team-mate Gaurav was very strong, he knows the conditions and we managed to beat him. I’m very happy we showed that Skoda is really strong, a really strong brand and we showed to everyone our car is really fantastic. The tyres have been great so a big thank you to Team MRF for making this possible.”
Cusco Subaru driver Yuya Sumiyama was second overall and in doing so, won the 2014 Asia Cup for a third time. “Asia Cup champion and overall 2nd position, very very happy and good result for the team. The conditions were very slippery and rough condition so we’re lucky”, said Sumiyama at final service.
It was another giant killing performance from New Zealander Mike Young bringing his Cusco Proton Satria home in 3rd place overall and securing the APRC Production Cup. Young was the only driver to finish all events in 2014 and doing so moved himself into second place in the drivers points “Its amazing for our team and Cusco, the boys worked so well, not even had a mechanical (problem) this year – we’re over the moon! Malcolm’s done an awesome job all year, kept me on my toes and in the grove so we’re really happy. Consistency has rewarded us with second in the championship in a 1.6 Proton, against all the four-wheel drive cars its just awesome”.
In only his third APRC event EZY Racing’s Dinesh Deheragoda from Sri Lanka found the conditions very difficult, but is looking forward to the next event in Thailand where he hopes to secure second in the Asia Cup, “Points for second in Asia Cup is more than I expected and my congratulations to Sumiyama who is already the Asia Cup champion mathematically. My target now is to see if I can finish second in the championship with some more points in Thailand.”
China Rally again proved to be a tough event to finish, especially with the wet conditions on Day 1. Australian Mark Peddar suffered the same fate as Gill hitting a rock on Stage 5 and retiring with damaged steering. Taiwan’s Huilan Shen didn’t make it past Stage 2 after she when off road in her Fiat Abarth 500.
There was no finish ceremony or celebrations at 2014 China Rally, after an accident on Stage 6 claimed the life of 20 year old Taiwanese driver Xie Chengxun.
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