PCWRC started this season at WRC Rd. 2, Swedish Rally, is a FIA sanctioned Group N Driver’s Championship. Although it has been only 2 years since the series was invented being a related series to WRC along with the Junior World Rally Championship (JWRC), historically it heads back to 1987, when the preceding Production Car Cup (Teams Cup) started during the transition of WRC from Group B to Group A.
As you may be aware, Toshihiro Arai has made courageous attempts to PCWRC with his Impreza since inaugural 2002 season to win the Championship title. As always, Arai has made satisfactory results in all the categories he entered, he has won the final round in Australia, but with many unfortunate troubles throughout the season, his final standing was 4th last season. It was, as a matter of fact Karamjit Singh (Malaysia) with his Proton who won the Championship title with 2 victories and constantly winning points.
03 season of PCWRC consist of 7 rounds including Swedish (completed), New Zealand, Argentina, Cyprus, Germany, Australia and Tour de Corse, with Germany and Tour de Corse being tarmac rallies.


The cars eligible for PCWRC is the Group N cars based on production cars. Unlike the WRC Car (World Rally Car) that can modify various parts in accordance to the regulation, in Group N, the competition is held between cars with strictly limited modifications for the cars based on, which is important for the based cars to be highly potential. The production cars eligible must have the base car producing more than 2500 units in the consecutive twelve months, and be homologated.


Any turbocharged cars entering the rally event, no matter the category, is mandated to install an air restrictor on the air intake to be equally conditioned, and for Group N cars, it is Φ32mm. These regulations are precisely prescribed from roll cages to the suspensions, and because of these strict regulations, the cost can be reduced and makes the cars ideal for introductory to rallying.


The points for PCWRC Championship is given to top 8 drivers like WRC and JWRC from this season. The points for ranking are as the winning driver gets 10 points, runner up gets 8, 3rd place gets 6, and from 4th to 8th, the points are decreased from 5 to 1. Drivers are mandated to register six events to enter out of seven total, and the points are scored according to the points accumulated by the results of these events. Throughout the series, many local drivers make one-off entry to the events, however they are counted outside of the Championship titles.


In order to attain the Championship title, likewise WRC, the full entry to the season is mandated in PCWRC and the car numbers are fixed throughout the season. In PCWRC, the numbers from 51 to 79 are the numbers for full entry, and Toshihiro Arai has 54 and Possum Bourne has 62. PCWRC cars start the rally after works and private WR Cars, according to the order of point ranking on Leg 1, and in the order of the result of previous day after Leg 2. In this way, it is different from WRC where 1st to 15th place starts in reverse order after Leg 2.


There is no age limit for the drivers entering PCWRC like the one for JWRC (must be under 27). In 2003 season, there will be much experienced drivers like Stig Blomqvist (56) from Sweden, Gustavo Trelles (47) from Uruguay and drivers like Daniel Sola (Spain) the former Champion of JWRC and Martin Rowe (England) who were bumped out of JWRC. There are young drivers in their 20s, but PCWRC is a category which does require some experience to be competitive.