The 2008 FIA Asia Pacific Rally Championship (APRC) reached its finale after touring throughout the Southern Hemisphere in the spring and then on to the Asian countries. The venue of the final round was Zhejiang, China. Yokohama Rubber Company has a manufacturing facility and sales offices for tires and rubber hoses in the province's capital city, Hangzhou, which is a good example of the economically active and rapidly growing Chinese cities.

This Chinese round of the APRC was combined with a round of the China Rally Championship (CRC). A huge crowd formed at the ceremonial start, demonstrating the growing interest in motor sport in China.

The rally started with SS1 which was run on an artificial course with an overhead crossing and two cars went through the stage in parallel. The stars of this opening act were two ADVAN supported drivers, Hiroshi Yanagisawa of the Cusco World Rally Team and the Pacific Cup winner, Dean Herridge.

The Japanese driver who was aiming at the Asia Cup crown in this event matched his main rival in the cup contention, Cody Crocker, in SS1. Yanagisawa made the most of ADVAN rally tire's potential on the wet and slippery surfaces of this stage and took the top slot overall after SS1. On the other hand, a regular contender of the CRC this season, Herridge, was chasing two championships here, the APRC drivers' title and the team title of the CRC.

The full-scale competition began at SS2 on Saturday morning. It had been raining since the early morning and the surface conditions were extremely difficult. It was not only very slippery but severely abrasive because many small and hard stones were buried in the mud, which was an ultimate durability test for tires.

Many teams lost ground due to punctures but the ADVAN users didn't have any problem with their tires and Yanagisawa finished Day 2 as the rally leader with a comfortable gap to the runner-up.

However, Herridge's run was hampered by a gearbox malfunction. The team decided to change the gearbox during a 20-minute service time, the third service of the day, and managed to send him back into contention with only a five minute delay. Despite receiving a penalty for the delay, Herridge finished the day in fifth overall and second among the CRC competitors. The other ADVAN equipped drivers, Yuya Sumiyama and Takuya Kamata, were also well-positioned and sixth and seventh overall respectively.

The rain had ceased before the start of the final day but the surfaces were still wet, which didn't make the rally easier for the crews. Herridge was clearly one of the best performers of the day. He moved up to third overall and became the leader in the CRC after the first stage of Day 3 and, with a steady drive throughout the remaining stages, brought the team's first ever win in the CRC.

The rally leader, Yanagisawa, also kept a good pace but there was a pitfall for him in the final stage, SS15, where he made a mistake on the slippery surface and lost 25 seconds. As a result, he lost the lead position and had to settle for second at the finish, followed by Herridge, Kamata and Sumiyama in third, fourth and fifth respectively. The fact that all ADVAN users finished in the higher ranks proof positive of the ADVAN rally tires' superior performance.

"We used the ADVAN A053 tires. The size was 170/650R15 but Yanagisawa and Sumiyama chose the ADVAN A031 205/65R15 size in the first super special stage and Yanagisawa was able to register the fastest time.
"As the surface conditions in this rally were really bad and muddy, we had to use tires in the full-cut configuration. But the tire performance was satisfactory even with these cut patterns.
"Looking back this APRC season, we were convinced again that the development in the P-WRC before the end of 2007 season had been in the right direction. And we were able to prove the high performance of our products with the overall win in New Zealand achieved by Chris West."