Indian driver Gaurav Gill has won the APRC Rally of Hokkaido to setup a three-way fight for the Asia Pacific Rally Championship driver’s title as the series heads to the final round in China early November.
The final leg was a classic battle as Gill, held off his team-mate Katsu Taguchi, while both MRF drivers were being chased down by Alister McRae in the super quick Proton Satria S2000 car.
Perth-based McRae drove like a demon to pull to within 8 seconds of Taguchi, but ran out of time to settle for third place. The Scotsmen is now leading the Asia Pacific title fight, 2 points in front of his Proton team-mate Chris Atkinson who retired on the opening leg with engine failure.
Rifat Sungkar bought his Pertamina-Cusco Mitsubishi home 4th place in the driver’s points, but with only 39 points available for the next event the Indonesian is out of the title fight.
The overall event was won by Japanese Toshi Arai in new R4 Subaru Impreza; the hard charging former Production world champion was a popular victor on his home event.
