2008 Asia Pacific Rally Championship review
Veteran Japanese driver Katsuhiko Taguchi won the Rallye New Caledonia, the opening round of the 2008 Asia Pacific championship, after leading the two-day rally from start to finish. His Mitsubishi finished nearly two minutes ahead of the Subaru of Australian Dean Herridge, while the third and final championship finisher was 60 year old Mitsubishi driver Brian Green from New Zealand. Another Australian Scott Pedder had been lying second at half way but slid off the road on the second day as did Japanese driver Hiroshi Yanagisawa, Gaurav Gill, the only entrant eligible for the new Pirelli young driver scheme withdrew before the event after suffering injuries in a motorcycle accident back home in India. Third place in the rally's overall results was the local driver Jean Louis Leyraud (Subaru. Fellow New Caledonia drivers did not fare so well. Fiat Grande Punto S2000 driver Gael Lecerf crashed, Patrick Yanai had gearbox failure and Christian Patrick could not make his car fire up at the start of a stage on Day 2. Based at the island capital of Noumea, the first day featured stages nearby and was generally dry but wet and treacherously  slippery conditions were experienced on Day 2 in stages further up the coast.

Final Classification New Caledonia Rally – APRC 01
1 Taguchi/Stacey   Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX N 2h59m35s
2 Herridge/Murphy  Subaru Impreza N           3h01m29s
3* Leyraud/Hayes   Subaru Impreza N           3h06m46s)
4 Green/Pedersen   Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX N 3h12m04s
* did not score in APRC

Round two was the Rally of Canberra, the most important rally in Australia, being a WRC candidate. Old model Subaru Imprezas scored a dominating top five result Australia, headed by reigning champion Cody Crocker, who led from start to finish. Winner of the opening round Katsuhiko Taguchi (Mitsubishi) stopped on the first day with fuel pump trouble while the new model Subaru of Takuma Kamada crashed. Mitsubishi driver Scott Pedder was second after the first day but retired with damage after a heavy landing on day 2. Non championship driver Guy Wilks made a promising debut in his Honda Type R until he slid off the road on day two and was stuck. Various drivers reported impacts with kangaroos en route and Crocker only narrowly avoided them. The event was held in conjunction with an Australian national championship event, and on overall times the winning Toyota Corolla S2000 of Simon Evans completed the route just 3.9 seconds slower than Crocker!

Final classification Rally of Canberra – APRC 02
1 Crocker/Atkinson        Subaru Impreza            2h23m31.9s
2 Herridge/Murphy         Subaru Impreza            2h26m23.5s
3 Yanagisawa/Nakahara     Subaru Impreza            2h29m47.8s
4 Sungkar/Hayes           Subaru Impreza            2h30m38.2s
5 Leyraud/Searcy          Subaru Impreza            2h31m24.8s
6 Masumura/Watanabe       Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VII 2h38m24.5s

Overall drivers classification (after 2 rounds out of 7): Herridge 21p, Taguchi 18p; Crocker 16p; Green 11p; Yanagisawa 6p, Sungkar 5. Pedder 2p. Next event: Rally of Wangharei 7 – 8 of June.

Michele Mouton in New Zealand
Michele Mouton finished twelfth in the Otago Classic Rally in a Ford Escort RS1800 after a delay with a puncture, and an interruption during the event to display an ex-works Audi Quattro at a superspecial stage! Michele was reunited for this event with Fabrizia Pons, the codriver with whom she won her four world rally wins earlier in her career. The Classic event was run in conjunction with the Otago New Zealand national championship event, the world's most southerly major championship rally. The classic section was won by Subaru WRT test driver Pasi Hagstrom at the wheel of a Porsche 911RS, while the main event was won by Richard Mason in a Subaru Impreza group N. Manson scored his second successice win in the championship, after the first round Wairarapa Rally, and the second since he married his co-driver Sara. She told him that eshe will became his wife only if they win together the New Zealand championship.

Mitsubishi Evo X Wins
Fumio Nutahara gained the first victory for Mitsubishi's new Lancer Evo X model. This was on the asphalt Japanese championship Kuma Kogen Rally. Running in very much standard specification, as required by national rules, the Advan sponsored driver Nutahara was able to beat a 2008 version Subaru Impreza. Nutahara said "I found the Evo X suspension better than that on the old Evo IX. The Kuma Kogen Rally was over very bumpy asphalt, and it would have been hard work driving a IX, but this car was much easier to driver. Also the engine response on the Evo X is much better, but the car is about 100kg more heavy."

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