The Hindu : Sport / Racing : Motor : Taguchi in lead

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Dec 05, 2004

Sport

Sport - Racing : Motor

Taguchi in lead

By Nandakumar Marar

PUNE, DEC. 4 . MRF Tyres driver Katsuhiko Taguchi (co-driver Mark Stacey) leads Team Proton Pert Malaysia's Karamjit Singh (Allen Oh) by 13 seconds after stage 11 in the first leg of the MRF India Rally for Asia Pacific Rally Championship. The Malaysian, already assured of the overall drivers title prior to the sixth leg at Pune, surged ahead on the second stage at Bhutonde before the Japanese caught up.

MRF Tyres' Armin Kremer (Timo Gottshalk), trailing the leader, is out of the reckoning after his Mitsubishi Lancer EVO8 went off course at Bhutonde. Eight teams remain in APRC for the second leg at Tahir on Sunday, with Naren Kumar (D. Ramkumar) in fourth position overall behind Geoff Argyle. The only Indian driver in the fray, third behind Taguchi and Karamjit after stage one at Saswad, lost time at stage five.

Taguchi had opened up a 4.8s lead over the leader after Friday's super special stage, then excelled on stages four, five, seven and nine and won the second super special in 1:27:20, followed by Karamjit (1:27:31). In the Indian National Rally Championship (INRC), Vikram Mathias (MRF Tyres) was leading overall after four stages, clocking 31.03 minutes, followed by teammate Karandip Singh 41s behind. Lohit Urs, Arjun Balu occupy the next two slots.

An eventful day

Armin Kremer's Mitsubishi Lancer EVO8 veered off track during the first leg (stage two). The incident set off a chain of events, culminating in cancellation of stage three after the elite teams, MRF Tyres and Proton Pert, called up Simo Lampinen, the Clerk of the Course, of the India leg.

According to Lampinen, Mark Stacey (co-driver for Katsuhiko Taguchi) and title leader Karamjit Singh contacted him prior to stage three (Bhutonde). "I had to go by the information from them. For safety's sake, I had to take the decision to cancel stage three," said the rally legend from Finland, camping in Pune over the last two months fine-tuning preparations.

The drivers were critical about the gravel/tarmac sections on stage three, pointing out the danger to the tyres. Lampinen, when asked about the reason for clearing such a risky terrain, clarified that his decision was based on clearance from Nazir Hoosein, chairman of Himalayan Rally Association, the APRC organiser and also the vice-president of FIA.

Karamjit (Proton Pert) was leading at stage two, followed by Taguchi (MRF Tyres) and Naren Kumar in next two positions of APRC. The second leg on Sunday will be held over six stages (109.9 kms) at Tahir.

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