This weekend sees the running of Rally Indonesia, Round 5 of the Asia Pacific Rally Championship.
Once again the rally will be based in Makassar, the capital of South Sulawesi island with a population of about 1.25 million. This year, the service park has been moved from Pabrik Gula Takalar to the Celebes Convention Center (CCC) complex at Losari Beach, Makassar city. It will bring the rally up close and personal to spectators, while offering all the facilities of a city location.
As they were last year, all special stages will be held in sugarcane plantations with Day 1 running close to the Pabrik Gula Takalar and Day 2 returning to south of the Pabrik Gula Takalar. The stages have a clay base which turns very slippery in wet conditions.
After some wild weather in Tokachi, for Rally Hokkaido, the overall standings have again been shaken up. Reigning champion, Subaru driver, Cody Crocker, finished fifth in Hokkaido, behind Katsu Taguchi, Hiroshi Yanagisawa and Dean Herridge. Taguchi now leads the field ahead of Crocker by three points.
Last year, it was MRF team mates, Jussi Valimaki and Taguchi who finished first and second in Indonesia, so if past results are any indication, Taguchi has a good chance of finishing ahead of Crocker once again.
The APRC regulars will face competition from local driver, Subhan Aksa, who has competed in both APRC and PWRC championship rallies in the past.
Rally Indonesia has provisionally been included in the WRC Calendar for 2010 and is running this year as a candidate round. FIA heavyweights, Nazir Hoosein, Piero Sodano and Wan Heping will be officially observing the event.
The rally gets underway on August 22.
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