The Hindu : Sport / Racing : Motor : Taguchi in second spot

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Jun 02, 2007
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Sport - Racing : Motor

Taguchi in second spot

K. Paul Abraham

Canberra: Defending champion Cody Crocker began his quest for a hat-trick of wins at the Rally of Canberra in right earnest as the third round of the Asia Pacific Rally Championship (APRC) started here on Friday night.

At the end of the first Special Stage (a 10.33 km event), Crocker was in lead with a timing of 6 minutes and 56.7 seconds. Katsuhiko Taguchi of Team MRF was second (7:00.5), while teammate Jussi Valimaki was third.

Home favourite

Home favourite Crocker is aiming to continue the good show on familiar terrain.

"Our Motor Image Rally Team and the MRF team have now missed one round each, so from here on in it's a race to the championship title," Crocker had said at the pre-event press conference.

"Our new Subaru performed brilliantly when we made our debut with it in New Zealand. I am aiming to continue that good form here on my home event."

Remaining hopeful

However, Valimaki and Taguchi are hoping that the extensive test sessions they have completed over the last two days will give them an edge over Crocker.

Valimaki, from Finland, has completed over 250km of testing in the lead-up to the event, while Japanese Taguchi too has done a similar distance.

"I wasn't happy with the set-up of the car at the first round in New Caledonia," Valimaki said.

"We tried some new construction tyres and some new compound tyres from MRF, and they are a big improvement. I am very confident heading into this event."

Earlier, the rally was flagged off at the City Centre and the organisers decided to hold the first Special Stage at night in order to make it more thrilling for the spectators.

Another 15 Special Stages are to be completed over the next two days. The main attraction of the competition — the mineshaft stage — will begin on Saturday.

The provisional results (after Special Stage I):

1. Cody Crocker (Ben Atkinson), Motor Image Rally Team (6:56.7); 2. Katsuhiko Taguchi (Mark Stacey), Team MRF (7:00.5); 3. Jussi Valimaki (Jarkko Kalliolepo), Team MRF (7:08.7); 4: Rifat Sungkar (Herkusuma Mohammad), Motor Image Rally Team (7:19.5); 5.V.R. Naren Kumar (D. Ramkumar), Team Rally India (7:27.6); 6. Brian Green (Fleur Pedersen), Brian Green Motorsport Ltd. (7: 59.7).

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