Originally planned as the opening round at Kaiyang, Guizhou, it was cancelled due to heavy snowfall earlier this year, the Shanghai round in effect became the season opener of the China Rally Championship (CRC).

The route of this rally was located around the campus of Fudan Daxue which is one of the most prestigious universities in China, close to the city center of Shanghai. All Special Stages (SS) had asphalt surfaces, since they were closed public roads around the university. Competitive distances of the stages were relatively short and only five to six kilometers long. For this event, YOKOHAMA brought the tarmac rally tires, ADVAN A006T, which were developed through the rally events around the world including WRC rallies. This type is officially registered with the FIA.

The CRC consists of two broad classes; The International Class and the National Class. The four wheel drive cars with 2 liter turbo charged engines fall into the former class and normally contend for the overall win. The latter is for the two wheel drive cars which are made in China and driven by Chinese drivers. Until last year, only the cars with less than 1600cc engines were eligible for the National Class. But following the rule change that saw the displacement limit increased to 2000cc, the series organizers instituted the 1600cc Cup to encourage the competitors with older cars to continue participating, only as an interim measure for the 2008 season. Therefore, Shanghai VW 333 Racing's 1600cc Volkswagen Polos are eligible for both the National Class and the 1600cc Cup.

Title		Category	Eligible cars
National Class	1600cc Cup	S2	2WD, up to 1600cc
	-	S3	2WD, 1600cc to 2000cc
International Class		N4	4WD, 2000cc turbo-charged

The ceremonial start was held at a shopping center in the proximity of the rally route. The rally began at eight o'clock in the evening with florid illuminations and even fireworks which the spectators enjoyed. Some people insisted that it was livelier than an average WRC event. Because not a few of the teams, drivers and mechanics are also involved in the WRC or APRC, the quality of the event and competitors were considerably good, which reflects much attention to the Chinese market from major car manufacturers around the world.

Day 1 on Saturday started with an unexpected twist. One of the aces of Shanghai VW 333 Racing and the double title winner of the China Circuit Championship (CCC) and CRC last year, Han Han, retired early in the SS2 due to mechanical trouble. He was also forced to retire from the first two races in the CCC due to engine failures and the unlucky trend seemed to continue in the CRC. It was especially frustrating because he marked several fastest times on Day 2 (Sunday), beating more powerful 2000cc cars after he rejoined the rally under the SupeRally rule.

The main rival of Shanghai VW 333 Racing in last year's championship, the Qingyang Rally team, which is the factory outfit of Yiqi Volkswagen, entered as many as eight cars for this rally; three 2000cc Golfs which meet this year's National Class regulations, three 2000cc Sagitars, one 1600cc Golf and one Bora with a 1800cc turbo charged engine which isn't eligible for the National Class. Their ace driver drove a Sagitar but it was much slower than 1600cc Polos because of its massive bodywork and inchoate car setup. Among them, Qin Fawei kept a good and consistent pace throughout the two days with a 2000cc Golf and became the first winner of the new National Class for 2000cc cars.

Since the second and third finishing Dongfeng Honda Civics were disqualified for infringement of technical regulations, Wang Rui of Shanghai VW 333 Racing (he drove a 1600cc Polo) was promoted to second in the National Class and Zhang Yuming (another 1600cc Polo) to third.

While introducing a new type Impreza STi, Subaru Rally Team China had a prominent presence in this event. The team launched the new car for the media on Friday with a large attendance by the Subaru management in China. In addition, they organized a huge group tour of one hundred Subaru supporters and YOKOHAMA impressed them with the performance of the ADVAN rally tires.

However, their brand-new Impreza STi virtually had no testing beforehand and struggled in this event. Although the car didn't have any apparent problem, it fell far behind the leaders in the first two stages. With a step by step improvement of the car setup, the Impreza started to show a consistent pace, but it was still slower than the rally leaders by one second per kilometer. Consequently, the car missed the podium and finished in fourth in its debut event in the CRC.

After the opening round, the CRC takes a long interval this year because of the Beijing Olympic Games. The next round will be held in the first week of September on gravel surfaces around Mohe, Heilongjang Sheng, which is close to the border between China and Russia. It will be important for the teams to utilize this long interval to improve their cars and setups, as the following six rounds are scheduled with rather shorter spacing between September and December.