Sanjay Takale, Sean Gregory lift Asia Pacific Rally Production Cup

Pune, 1 Oct 2013: Braving the unforgiving conditions in Rally Hokkaido, Sanjay Takale came up trumps and won the Asia-Pacific Rally Championship (APRC) Production Cup title taking an unbeatable lead after an incident-filled weekend in Rekibetsu Island.

Driving his Subaru Impreza Dreams India car, Takale and his navigator Sean Gregory put up a solid show after having crashed out in the last round in Malaysia, to finish second behind Gaurav Gill of Team MRF. The penultimate round of APRC, however, was last for Takale as he had notified to skip season-ending China Rally at the start of the season, he told this website from Pune after returning from the rally.

In the five rounds, Takale came out empty-handed only from Malaysia, but scored points at every other rounds—Whangarei in New Zealand to New Caledonia, Queensland and Hokkaido in Japan—for an aggregate of 151.5. He needed to at least finish second in his class to steer clear of his main challenger Hiroshi Asakura as the Japan round was his final fling on the 2013 APRC.

Takale was home in 2 hours 56 minutes 50.8 seconds in his MRU Motorsports-backed Subaru. Gill was much faster and finished in 2:26.26.2. Though there were 10 more drivers between Gill and Takale, but all were either Asia Cup drivers or Japanese National championship competitors.

Asakura earned 30 points from Japan and now has a total of 74 and will be competing in the season-ending China Rally after having skipped the Round 2 in New Caledonia. But maximum he can earn there is 39 points, while the gap between him and Takale now stands at staggering 77.5. Hypothetically speaking, it would require two more rounds with full points to surpass Takale by half-a-point.

“It was a fight fair and square. We won the Production Cup title beating Asakura on his own home ground,” said an elated Takale after winning the title. 

In the super special stage Takale beat Asakura by 6 seconds and then kept the Japanese under leash by constantly winning all stages ahead of him.“We were well-prepared for the Rally Hokkaido and decided not to commit Hara Kiri in Japan,” said Takale, who leapfrogged one place to No 2 in the APRC overall championship title race.

Takale began the Stage 1 by beating Young and Asakura by half-a-minute when he completed the 29.11-km New Ashoro Long stage in 20 minutes 36.5 seconds. This was a riposte to Young who had beaten Takale in the Super Special stage, SS1, on Friday.

The SS3 at Yam Waka saw Takale extend his lead by over a minute taking the tricky Rikubetsu Long in 4 minutes 10.7 seconds. The contest went on so with Takale (2:12:47.4) extending his lead slowly but steadily to end Saturday being second behind Gill and roughly two minutes ahead of Young (2:14:38.1). Asakura (2:21:21.5) was further down by 9 minutes.

Sunday saw an ominous sign for Takale as Young went all out and won six stages ahead of Takale, but the Pune driver had enough gap to stay ahead in the overall classification. Two short stages remained and Takale decided to take on Young and won the penultimate SS17 and the final SS18 through the Satsunai river to stamp his class.

India’s Gaurav Gill lead  the APRC overall race after he won the Rally Hokkaido. Gill has 117.5 points while Takale is second at 104 points after earning 29 points from Japan. New Zealand’s young driver Michael Young is No 3 at 92, while Gill’s teammate Esapekka Lappi, who crashed out in Japan after he broke suspension of his car in the SS9, is at No 4 with 78 points.

Having won Production Cup title, Takale will now keep an eye on how others are doing in China as he will not be in action there. Being No 2 being Gill means Takale has a mathematical chance of making it to the podium in the APRC Championship.

He leads Young by 12 points and Lappi by 26 points. The Team MRF’s Gill sits atop with 117.5 points and Takale’s podium entirely depends on Team MRF’s strategy. They are winning the overall championship after Gaurav Gill’s stupendous show. If Gill gets team orders to allow Lappi to win in China then the Finn would be able to surpass Takale.

Michael Young is also there in contention. With 92 points he is the only one who can overtake Gill, but the Kiwi driver will have to win and Gill to take no points, which is an unlikely situation.

Also, according to the APRC website, “Young is unlikely to take part in the China rally.” Though no reasons have been put forward,

After drawing a blank in Malaysia, Takale earned 23 points to be back in contention for the Asia Cup title. He is currently fifth overall in Asia Cup with two drivers tied for the second place. Defending champion Yuya Sumiyama (46) and Young (46) are tied for second place behind Shuhei Muta (68). The third and final round of Asia Cup will be Rally Thailand set to be held onDecember 7-8 in north of Bangkok.

Drivers: 1. Gaurav Gill (Ind) 117.5, 2. Sanjay Takale (Ind) 104, 3. Michael Young (Nzl) 92, 4. Esapekka Lappi (Fin) 78, 5. Hiroshi Asakura (Jpn) 53.

Drivers: 1. Sanjay Takale 151.5, 2. Hiroshi Asakura 74.

Co-drivers: 1. Sean Gregory (Mas) 151.5, 2. Takumi Takahashi (Jpn) 44, 3. Osamu Yoda (Jpn) 30.

Rally Hokkaido results: 1. Gaurav Gill and Glenn MacNeall (Skoda-Fabia) 2:26:22.2, 2. Sanjay Takale and Sean Gregory (Subaru Impreza) 2:56:50.8, 3. Michael Young and Malcolm Read (Toyota MTZ) 2:58:25.0, 4. Hiroshi Asakura and Takumi Takahashi (Proton Satria Neo) 3:06:25.8.  Esapekka Lappi and Janne Ferm (Skoda-Fabia) DNF.

Detailed results: http://www.rally-hokkaido.com/results/2013/pc/e/aprc/index.html

Asia Cup: Drivers: 1. Shuhei Muta (Jpn) 68, 2. Michael Young (Nzl) 46, 3. Yuya Sumiyama (Jpn) 46, 4. Tomohide Hasegawa (Jpn) 38, 5. Chaiyan Longton (Tha) 25, 6. Sanjay Takale 23, 7. Hiroshi Asakura (Jpn) 16, 8. Esapekka Lappi (Fin) 0.

For detailed standing after Round 5: