ŠkodaPortal.cz Simply clever

Noumea, New Caledonia, 15. Juni 2013 – After the one-two at the start of this year's Asia-Pacific Rally Championship  (APRC) the newly formed ŠKODA MRF team dominated again on the first day of the rally in exotic New Caledonia. Defending Champion Gaurav Gill (India) and his navigator Glenn Macneall (New Zealand) lead the competition by a solid margin after eight special stages in their ŠKODA Fabia Super 2000. Their team mates Esapekka Lappi/Janne Ferm (Finnland), who had won the first Rally in New Zealand, had to retire after an accident.

Gill was totally satisfied after the first day. "The car was perfect. The rally is very demanding but it is a lot of fun to drive here." The Indian continuously extended his lead during the eight special stages and was more than five minutes ahead of the next competitor at the end of the first of a total of two days. The originally scheduled ninth special stage was cancelled because of heavy rain. That reduced the total length of the special stages to 225.74 kilometres.

Eight more special stages are planned for Sunday about 35 kilometres north of the capital Noumea. According to the weather forecast there is a chance of more rain. Therefore very difficult conditions have to be expected. More than half the competitors in the APRC had to give up on Saturday already. Even before the rain started Gill had reported that the course was "extremely slippery". Since only the best car of each team is included in the scoring for the APRC team competition ŠKODA can still achieve the full points.

For Czech automobile manufacturer ŠKODA, entering the APRC represents an important step in the company's growth offensive in international markets. ŠKODA has set its sights on increasing its global sales to at least 1.5 million units per year by 2018, with particular emphasis on the growth markets in Asia. "The APRC, as one of the region's most important motorsport events, provides us with outstanding opportunities to present the ŠKODA brand to a large public," said Dr. Frank Welsch, Member of the Board of Management for Technical Development at ŠKODA.

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