The Hindu : Sport : Taguchi zips his way to glory

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Apr 17, 2006

Sport

Sport

Taguchi zips his way to glory

R. Venkatnarayan

Noumea (New Caledonia): Katsuhiko Taguchi was on fire on Sunday. Having taken a big lead he could have taken it easy. But he decided to go all out in the final stage and zipped through it in style to not only win the final stage but also take the honours in the Rally de Nouvelle Caledonia. MRF Tyres thus garnered 16 points in the Asian Pacific Rally championship.

"We needed those three points also, so I had to go flat out," Taguchi said. "It is a big victory for us. Now it will be a close race with Cody Crocker."

After Rafat Sungkar finished the final stage on Sunday, in front of a goodly holiday crowd, Taguchi did one better by finishing in 3 minutes and 10 seconds, a second earlier.

Taguchi had to start towards the end, which he said "creates the extra pressure. There is more loose sand on the track and one tends to skid. But such things are not much of a bother. Things worked out as we had planned fially". He also had a word of praise for his competitor, Rafat.

Fantastic

Mark Stacey, Taguchi's co-driver said "he (Taguchi) was fantastic today. I was confident he would win today. He has enough experience in this kind of course."

Stacey felt the second stage (No. 3) was very tricky "There's some hidden corners on the top where the driver has just to hear and navigate through. But Taguchi came through that very well. In fact I will say he was brilliant."

On the his next rally at Japan (MRF Tyres is not participating in Roturua), Taguchi sounding confident said he would make the most of the home advantage. "Though Cody too is very experienced there, I hope to do well".

Mr. Tony Rodricks, a beaming Team Manager MRF said, "Taguchi has rediscovered himself here today."

Final standings: Katsuhiko Taguchi/Mark Stacey (MRF) 01:47:30 seconds, 2. Rafat Sungkar/Mohamad Herkusuma (Indonesia Rally Team) 01:53:57, 3. Dermott Malley/Linzi Malley (M Rally Team) 01:59:26, 4. Fan Fan/Jun Wei Fang (Wanyu Rally Team) 02:00:02, 5.Subhan Aksa/Hade Mboi (Indonesia Rally Team) 02:00:51.

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