The Hindu : Sport : Can Crocker continue his run?

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Saturday, Jul 07, 2007
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Sport

Can Crocker continue his run?

S. Sudarsan

Rally Hokkaido from today

HOKKAIDO: In motor rallying, especially in the forest and hilly regions, the rules are set by nature.

With rain forecast during Rally Hokkaido, the fourth round of the Asia Pacific Rally Championship, this weekend, the drivers will find it difficult to negotiate through the tough and demanding terrain.

Australia’s Cody Crocker (Subaru Impreza), the 2006 APRC champion, will look to stay on the top of the standings with a good result here.

But, traditionally, the rally has mostly been won outright by Japanese drivers.

Katsu Taguchi of Team MRF Tyres, the 1999 APRC Champion and 2005 winner here, is sure to give Crocker a run for his money.

“Cody (Crocker) won in Canberra because that is his hometown. But Hokkaido is my hometown!” said Taguchi.

Taguchi was faster than Crocker in three stages in Canberra, the earlier round, despite a low-powered Mitsubishi EVO 9 engine. For this round, Taguchi has a new engine.

Team MRF’s Jussi Valimaki, the 2005 APRC champion, was positive about his chances.

“In New Caledonia I had complained about the engine, and I was uncomfortable but here I got a new engine I am hoping to perform well,” he said.

Crocker will have to face another tough competitor in Toshi Arai (Subaru Impreza WRX Sti).

The Japanese driver would look to repeat his run last year when he won the title.

Meanwhile, the ceremonial start on Friday was colourful and cracking, with cute girls performing to famous Japanese numbers and crackers being burst at the race course.

Recce

On Wednesday, the drivers had a recce. The total distance is 232.42 kilometres in 16 dirt stages and the longest stages are Special Stages 10 and 14, which are 29.11 kms each.

The standings (after three rounds): Cody Crocker (co-driver Ben Atkinson) 32 points; Jussi Valimaki (Jarko Kalloilepo) 24; Katsu Taguchi (Mark Stacey) 24; Naren Kumar (D. Ramkumar) 14.