Due to many chaotic situation with different winners each rally, All Japan Rally Championship became quite complicated, with champion being uncertain until the final round "M.C.S.C Rally Highland Masters". According to the previous results, Norihiko Katsuta (3rd place in series) and Yujiro Nishio (4th) still keeps their chance among the Imprezas, but it all depends on the result of Fumio Nutahara on top and Masashi Ishida in 2nd. Under such difficult circumstances, the final round came about, but it was how to capture the long SS of 16.5 km, that determined the result of the rally.

The Monterey rally started and carried on with much of ups and downs; Masafumi Ishida, ranked top in the series slowed down with his mechanical problems, and Nutahara, who battled with Yanagisawa until the middle, backed off on SS 6 with burst tires. Yanagisawa leaped up to top, and Katsuta followed right behind. Sumiyama, who had a good start and went up to 2nd place in the beginning, followed Katsuta, and Nishio was in 4th. This makes four Imprezas leading the entire rally. Yanagisawa was dying to get his first win, and Katsuta had battled through out the rally, and the rainy wet first day ended with Yanagisawa on the lead with 7.2 seconds margin from Katsuta.

Highland Masters celebrates its 30th rally, and is so well known for the two 16.5 km long SS. The uphill in the beginning was with the rough road surface due to the typhoon, and the downhill in the second half, was flat and stiff. These SS with many ups and downs were already causing troubles to many from the first one. Katsuta was seeking his chance to upset the situation, but he hit his front tire in the side ditch and lost his time. Ishida too went off track and caused mechanical problems, and Nishio spun on the SS as well.

It was Nutahara and Mitsuo Ayabe who managed to drive through this long SS safely and fought gamely in spite of their rivals dropping out. Ayabe had won this rally 5 times in the past, and Nutahara had won 3 times, showing their good compatibility with the Highland Masters. They were beginning to show good performance getting ready to extend their records. After completing early stages, Nutahara tightfisted the top position, but Ayabe too kept his 2nd place with 27 points behind. While the top two continued to battle, Nishio was forced to withdraw with mechanical problems in SS 7. Much to his chagrin, this meant for him to fall out from the Championship battle as well.

When the tarmac #3 stage began at late night, even Ayabe who made a good drive on the gravel stage, could not keep with the pace of Nutahara, and had backed off. Katsuta was only left with very last of hope, strived hard drive the tarmac #3 stage after midnight, but only succeeded to promote his position from 14th to 10th. The Championship had fallen into the hands of Nutahara who scored his third victory this season. The runner up was Ishida, who jumped up to 5th place at the finish of the rally. Katsuta came in 3rd and Nishi came in 4th in the Championship, and wrapped up their 2002 season.

"I'm usually lot better with this Highland Masters, but this time, the dirt on 1st stage 16.5km long SS and the short course on 2nd stage were much tough to beat in condition than I expected. Especially the long SS on 1st stage wears out the tires a lot more with the rough road surfaces. On the 2nd stage, Taguchi was always filling the gap and eventually got me. By the time I reached the tarmac on the 3rd stage, the last thing I could do was to break down the car, so I stuck to constant driving to finish the rally."