The Hella International Rally of Whangarei, round 2 of the Asia-Pacific Championship, is being run this weekend on the roads of New Zealands Northland district.

This will be the first outing for defending APRC champ Cody Crocker, this year driving for the Motor Image Rally Team, a two-car line-up with Indonesian Rifat Sungkar in the second WRX.

With the MRF Lancers Jussi Valimaki and Katsu Taguchi missing from this round, Crocker will be out to grab a bagful of points before they face-off for the first time at Rally Canberra.

But Cusco Racings Hiroshi Yanagisawa will been looking to make life difficult for Crocker, following a disappointing Rally of New Caledonia. And Kiwi national champ Richard Mason also has a point to prove, after sneaking past Crocker on the final day of last years NZ round to grab outright honours.

Add into the mix the five-car Team New Caledonia, lead by Patrick Yanai, 2006 US Rally Championship runner-up Ken Block, and a strong field of entries from the New Zealand Rally Championship, and it's looking like a fantastic rally weekend in Whangarei.

All the action will be available via podcast at APRC Live, available on Tuesday morning, as well as regular updates from the APRC.TV web site.

Images courtesy of Linear Photographs.