With just eight points separating Team MRF drivers Jan Kopecky (Czech Republic) and Gaurav Gill (India), there is still everything to fight for in the Rally Hokkaido, the fifth round of the FIA Asia-Pacific Rally Championship to be run here this weekend.
Kopecky (co-driver Pavel Dresler), who leads the championship with 112 points, retired his Skoda Fabia S2000 at the previous event in Malaysia.
His team-mate, and the 2013 APRC champion, Gill (Glenn Macneall), with 104 points, is chasing hard, but the Czech driver remains confident of victory.
"If you can make good pacenotes like we did in Malaysia, it's possible to make up the difference. But the next two events in Japan and China are all very different," Kopecky said.
Gill, meanwhile, has nothing to lose and needs a victory to get his title defence back on track.
"The strategy is going to be absolutely flat out from the word go in Japan. That's going to be a sort of decider for us. It will either make it or break it," Gill said.
Team MRF boss, Lane Heenan, said that while it was pleasing that his team drivers were running one and two in the championship standings, the margin was a little too close for comfort.
"It's great that both drivers are in the running, but with only eight points between them heading into this event, we know that they'll both be pushing really hard to win."
"Kopecky's car will have a new engine for this event, although it's the same specification as in previous events, but other than that both Skodas will run as they have in previous events," Heenan said.
This year's Rally Hokkaido stages are similar to those in 2013, with 18 special stages totalling 222 kilometres.
The stages are fast and narrow, and pacenotes have to be accurately written as the grass and bushes by the side of the road can often be covering some deep ditches and hidden obstacles.
Starting Friday from the city of Obihiro, with a ceremonial start and a one kilometre Satsunai Super Special, the majority of the rally runs Saturday and Sunday.
Weather conditions for the event are likely to be warm, although the weather bureau has predicted the chance of a typhoon Thursday which would certainly spice up road conditions.
