Non-championship competitor, Manfred Stohl, comfortably won the APRC China Rally Zhangye at the wheel of a locally entered Citroen DS3 R5, while championship leader, second placed Gaurav Gill (Team MRF Skoda Fabia R5), took the points for winning. Â
Based at the faraway city of Zhangye, close to the border with Mongolia, the event used stages on the edge of the Gobi desert, a location recently inspected by the FIA, but rejected, for the newly revived China world championship rally. Â
Gill’s teammate, Fabian Kreim, missed stages when the turbocharged failed. Australian Champions Eli Evans and Glen Weston were fourth in a Citroen DS3 R3T.
A notable entry was APRC class leader, Mike Young, who drove a BYD Dream Team Qin hybrid car in place of his usual Subaru. Â
Australians Chris Atkinson and Dale Moscatt won the supporting national championship event, which attracted over 100 entries, in his special VW Golf. Â
It has now been three years since Skoda did not win an APRC championship rally. Â
The world championship China Rally Huairou will be run close to Beijing next month.
CHINA RALLY ZHANGYE
1. Manfred Stohl/Bernhard Ettel (A) Citroën DS3 R5, 2:12.22,3
2. Gaurav Gill/Glenn Macneall (IND/AUS) Skoda Fabia R5, +5.04,0
3. Wang Hua/Pang Jiadong (CHN) Citroën DS3 R5, +13.00,3
4. Eli Evans/Glen Weston (AUS) Citroën DS3 R3T, +17.26,2
5. Hitoshi Takayama/Tomoyuki Nakagawa (J) Subaru Impreza WRX STI, +23.57,9
6. Mike Young/Zhang Longxi (NZ/CHN) BYD Qin, +44.42,1
More APRC news and photos from the event will appear in this Thursday's issue of RallySport Magazine.
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- Martin Holmes