The Hindu : Sport : Crocker is the champion

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Jul 10, 2006

Sport

Sport

Crocker is the champion

P. Satish Kumar

OBIHIRO (JAPAN): When the sun went down in the `Land of the Rising Sun' it was the overnight leader, Cody Crocker on his Subaru (co-driver Ben Atkinson) of Team Les Walkden, who was spraying champagne from the podium on Sunday.

Crocker emerged champion at the Rally of Hokkaido, the fourth round of the APRC rally championship, not encountering much difficulty in the second Leg on Sunday.

There was a delay in the conduct of the special stages on Sunday when the safety car making the dry run tumbled and crashed at stage 11. The stage had to be subsequently cancelled.

Crocker finished overall with a timing of 2 hours 26 minutes and 53.1 seconds. The Australian, in his debut season in the APRC, has now won three out of three and hopes to keep up the good work.

About the surface, Crocker said, "It was slippery early on and then it became rough. It makes it hard to drive and it's more work for the driver to control the car from crashing."

On Taguchi not being able to go faster Crocker said, "I am surprised that Katsu (Taguchi) could not drive faster. I think he had some problems. It was a very good race overall."

Yanagisawa second

Hiroshi Yanagisawa (co-driver Tadashi Misaizu) of Team Cusco Racing, who was second overnight, worked up a good speed but could only finish behind Crocker. The Japanese clocked a time of 2:28:09.5 and managed to give Crocker a good run for his money.

Team MRF's Katsuhiko Taguchi (co-driver Mark Stacey) on his Mitsubishi Lancer EVO 9 had to settle for the third place with an overall timing of 2:29: 15.2.

Local favourite Taguchi was not too pleased with himself. "It's quite disappointing. My choice of tyres did not work out. Today I had problems with the brake and could not drive too fast."

He went on to add: "We must win the next race. Maybe if I had used the hard compound tyres, I could have done better. But no regrets."

The other driver for Team MRF, Jarkko Miettinen, finished fourth, just 8.3 seconds behind Taguchi. It was a much-improved performance from Miettinen who had said before the start of the rally that his aim was to "finish the race."

The results (provisional): 1. Cody Crocker/Ben Atkinson, Subaru, Team Les Walkden, 2:26:53.1; 2. Hiroshi Yanagisawa/Tadashi Misaizu 2:28:09.5; 3. Katsuhiko Taguchi/Mark Stacey, Mitsubishi Lance Evo 9, Team MRF, 2:29: 15.2; 4. Jarkko Miettinen/Mikko Markkula, Mitsubishi Evo 9, Team MRF, 2:29:23.5; 5. Eli Evans/Matt McAdam, Subaru, Team Les Walkden, 2:32:04.0.

Points position after four rounds: 1. Cody Crocker (48 points), 2. Katsuhito Taguchi (31), 3. Rifat Sungkar (27), 4. Hiroshi Yanagisawa (19), 5. Eli Evans (17), Dermott Malley (12), Fan Fan (12), 7. Subhan Aska (7), 8. Jarkko Miettinen (5) and 9. Brian Green (3).

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