The third round of the 2008 Asia Pacific Rally Championship, the Rally of Whangarei, was held in New Zealand. The host town of the event, Whangarei, is located in the northern part of North Island. This final round of the Pacific leg of the series also served as a round of the New Zealand national championship, so many local competitors entered the event together along with the APRC regular entrants.
　
The Cusco Rally Team entered three cars in this event. In addition to Dean Herridge and Hiroshi Yanagisawa, Yuuya Sumiyama made his debut in an overseas rally event with the Japanese team. YOKOHAMA also supplied the tires for Arai Motorsport's Takuya Kamata and local ace Chris West in a Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution. So five cars in total used the ADVAN rally tires.
　
The stages were concentrated in an area within 50km from Whangarei. The rally started quite eventfully and some of the favorites were eliminated in the early stages.
　
The strongest of the local drivers was West. He took the overall lead at SS1 with an 8.4 second gap and extended it thereafter by registering the fastest time in every stage.
　
After four stages and the first service break of the day, no one could stop him. The Kiwi put the fastest time again in the SS5 (18.95km) and the SS6 (35.97km), which meant six successive stage wins for him. Although he gave way to his rival in SS7, West finished Day 1 first with a commanding 20 second margin after taking the stage win again in the final test of the day, SS8.
　
Dean Herridge of the Cusco squad was troubled with a gearbox problem that caused the fifth gear to come off while the car was running in that gear and he was forced to drive holding the gear lever with one hand until the service break. The team did a tremendous job to exchange his gearbox within a limited time (only 20 minutes!) and the Aussie could resume the competition without any penalty. Responding to the team's effort, Herridge pushed hard to make up the delay and eventually finished in fourth, which was enough to win the inaugural Pacific Cup.
　
Meanwhile, West kept the lead position throughout Day 2 and took a nearly perfect overall win with a 17.5 second gap to the runner-up.
　
As for the Japanese crews, Yanagisawa finished in fifth, following his Australian teammate. Kamata of Arai Motorsport was forced to retire in SS6 due to engine trouble after showing robust drives in the early stages. Sumiyama did a course off in the final SS and had to retire but his performance in his first ever overseas event was already promising.

　[Result: 4th Asia-Pacific Championship]

"This weekend, YOKOHAMA Rally tyre A053 was very suitable for the condition in Whangarei, so we could make a margin of 20 second during the 1st day."
　
"It wasn't enough safety margin, and to keep my concentration, I also pushed during day2."
　
"But I could control the gap."
　
"I would like to keep this condition, to aim the championship this year."

"The Rally of Whangarei was a high speed event but there was loose gravel laid on relatively hard surfaces in many places. The conditions were a little bit similar to the Rally Hokkaido in Japan but it seemed that 'digs' on the surfaces were shallower than that of Hokkaido.
　
"Dean Herridge and Hiroshi Yanagisawa had some difficulty in driving because the coefficient of friction (μ) of the surfaces was much lower than that of the previous two rounds.
　
"At the first service after the early stages of Day 1, their tire choices were divided because of the difference in their driving styles, we supposed. Dean probably wanted harder tires, judging by his experiences in the past, and Hiroshi took the medium-hard compound tires as he was familiar with them.
　
"Dean clinched the title of the Pacific Cup by finishing in fourth here. This meant the team accomplished one of their goals of this year and we are proud that the ADVAN tires helped their achievement.
　
"The next round will be the Rally Hokkaido in Japan which is the home country of ADVAN. Last year, Hiroshi marked several very competitive times there and Fumio Nutahara led the national championship division for a while by a considerable margin. So I am confident that our tires will suit the course in Hokkaido again this year."