India Rally scheduled as 2016 APRC finale

After hosting the final round of this year's FIA Asia Cup at Chikkmagalur last week, India looks set to make a return to the main Asia Pacific Rally Championship (APRC) next year after a 12-year hiatus. The Coffee Day Rally was evaluated as an APRC contender this year after being granted Asia Cup status by FIA observers who were present during the 2013 edition of the event.

A brochure on the official APRC website lists six events on the 2016 season calendar, in which New Caledonia is absent.

A statement on the website reads as follows; Run as a Asia Cup event in 2015, India Rally held on a
coffee plantation in Chikkamagalur joins the APRC with status in 2016.

The date for the India Rally, however, as well as the three rounds preceding it, have not been confirmed on the brochure. Although a provisional calendar has slotted India on 10 to 11 December.

The India Rally was previously held in 2003 and 2004 in Pune but subsequently dropped from the APRC calendar after organization issues led to dissatisfaction among the visiting competitors as well as the FIA.

Times have changed since then, however, as has the venue for India's entry into the most prestigious rally championship of the Asia Pacific region has shifted to the coffee plantations of Chikkmagalur, which has been hosting the finale of the Indian Rally Championship of late and has been run well.

2016 ASIA PACIFIC RALLY CHAMPIONSHIP CALENDAR

1) International Rally of Whangharei (Whangharei,New Zealand): 29 April - 01 May
2) Rally Queensland (Brisbane, Australia): 17-19 June
3) Malaysian Rally (Johor Bahru, Malaysia): TBC
4) Rally Hokkaido (Obihiro, Japan): TBC
5) China Rally (Shanghai, China): TBC
6) India Rally (Chikkmagalur): TBC