The first round of the 2008 China Rally Championships (CRC) "Shanghai Rally" was held from May 31^st to June 1^st in Shanghai city. The heavy snow which fell during the winter season postponed the start of the rally until now. The rally came under threat yet again due to the major earthquake which struck the Sichuan area, but was able to start on time without being affected.

The Wan-Yu Rally Team consisted of the same members from the 2007 season, led by D.Higgins, who had 5 consecutive victories last season to take the championships, F. Fan and Q. Chang. The 3 Type Gr.N equipped Lancer Evo. IX's were fully supported by TEIN. From this season, TEIN will support the Beijing Volkswagen Team, competing with the Sagitar (Jetta in Japan) in the S3 class. The popularity of the TEIN shock absorber is on the rise with the number of Type HG users increasing and many teams have started to come over in the service area to ask for advice.

 

Round 1 of the Shanghai Rally started with 20 stages, approx. 117km long, in the up and coming areas of Shanghai city. The road surface, in the short divided urban area, was extremely slippery due to the fine layers of dust spread all over the surface. Many cars retired because they went to fast and over-turned their cars. There were steep inclination points at entrances to bridges, which became jumping spots, so the shock absorber set ups on the cars became extremely important.

 

D. Higgins and the Wan-Yu Rally Team were aiming for another championship title this season, and he set the top time in the opening SS1. With a 1km/ sec lead over second place, D. Higgins finished Leg1 with a 20 second lead. F. Fan and Q. Chang finished the leg with no problems. The Volkswagen team in S3 also finished the first Leg up in the rankings.

D. Higgins continued his dominance in Leg2 setting multiple top times. In fact, out of the 20SS, he set the top time in 17SS. This meant, this was his 6th consecutive win carrying over from last season. This year looks very promising for D. Higgins, on the road to consecutive championships equipped with the TEIN Type Gr.N shock absorber.