The Hindu : Sport / Racing : Motor : It’s Jussi Valimaki’s day out

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Sunday, Sep 09, 2007
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Sport - Racing : Motor

It’s Jussi Valimaki’s day out

Abdus Salam

Makassar (Indonesia): Jussi Valimaki pulled off his best show yet in the Asian Pacific Rally Championship, winning every stage except one, in the first leg of the sixth round here.

The Finn ended the day 58 seconds ahead of Katsuhiko Taguchi, his competitor for the second spot in the championship. It was a great performance from the MRF drivers, especially after their inability to finish the previous race in Malaysia.

Valimaki was, unsurprisingly, pleased with the way the day went for him. “It was the perfect day — the car, the tyres, everything went off smoothly.”

Crocker in fifth spot

Valimaki’s challenge in the second leg will also come from the championship leader Cody Crocker, who, despite having a tough day, finished fifth.

Crocker had a flat tyre on the sixth stage and suspension trouble on the seventh stage, but manfully stayed on to give himself a chance of keeping his clean record in the championship intact.

Crocker needs only to maintain his position to ensure his second consecutive APRC title.

In blazing sunshine, Valimaki was dominant, taking advantage of the straight stretches on offer in most of the stages. Though he was briefly threatened by Taguchi his dominance was complete from the third stage.

Gill drives well

India’s Gaurav Gill, who drove impressively to finish fourth, blamed his Mitshubishi EVO 7, which he has been using since the Malyasian round, saying that it was too slow.

Sunshine and long straight stretches helped all the drivers maintain a good pace. Hiroshi Yanigasawa, who finished third, praised the tracks and said that they had helped his performance.

“In the beginning we were slower but the last four tracks were fast and that helped us a lot.”

The provisional results (after Stage 1): 1. Jussi Valimaki (Jarkko Kalliolepo), Team MRF 1:46:55, 2. Katsuhiko Taguchi (Mark Stacey), Team MRF 1:47:52, 3. Hiroshi Yanagisawa (Yoshimasa Nakahara), Cusco Racing 1:48:53, 4. Gaurav Gill (G len MacNeall), Team MRF 1:49:42, 5. Cody Crocker (Ben Atkinson), Motor Image Rally Team 1:51:24, 6. V.R. Naren Kumar (Jeff Judd), Team Rally India 1:51:28.