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- Apr 25, 2024
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The second round of the 2017 Asia-Pacific Rally Championship held in Australia promised to be an exciting event. An all-new addition to the season, the National Capital Rally promised the unexpected as none of the drivers and teams had any experience racing here.
Ole Christian Veiby, driving a Skoda Fabia R5 for Team MRF, was looking forward to gaining the lead in the championship after losing it with just three stages to go in the previous Rally Whangarei in New Zealand. Meanwhile, Indian Rally Legend Gaurav Gill, also driving a Skoda Fabia R5 for Team MRF, was looking forward to keeping his lead intact in the championship.
Run over a total race distance of 230km, the 2017 National Capital Rally consists of 13 special stages.
It was not a good start for Mike Young, driving a Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X, when he crashed out of the rally even before it officially started. A brake failure during a test session resulted in the car rolling over twice, which meant it could not be repaired before the start of the rally.
By the end of day one, Veiby was already leading the rally by 11 seconds from Gaurav, who in turn was 14 seconds ahead of Jari Ketomaa (Team MPart/Mitsubishi Mirage AP4). Japanese driver Atsushi Masumura was knocked out of the rally when he and co-driver Akiko Nakagawa suffered a puncture and a broken tyre jack.
At the end of the rally, it was Veiby who came out on top, with a slim 0.49-second lead over Gaurav. Team MRF locked out the top two positions in the rally, giving them a clear advantage in the APR Championship.
“I am happy with the way I drove, this has been our first wet rally in the R5. I was really pushing towards the last stages but eventually had to settle for second. The performance of the car and tyres have been very good.” Gaurav Gill said.
In the overall APRC 2017 standings, Norwegian Ole Christian Veiby leads with 70 points, followed by Gaurav Gill with 68 points and Robert Blomberg with 42 points.
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