The Hindu : Sport : Team MRF’s Taguchi would look to gladden home fans

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Team MRF’s Taguchi would look to gladden home fans

V.V. Ramanan

Gaurav returns to action

Crocker sounded cautious
We want to win and turn the scores: Taguchi
Weather has been quite fickle

— Photo: V.V. Ramanan

ALL SET: Team MRF’s Gaurav Gill (co-driver Jonathan Mortimer) is confident of doing well in Japan.

OBIHIRO: The chances of an MRF Tyres team finishing on top in the fourth round of the Asia Pacific Rally Championship have increased with India’s Gaurav Gill (co-driver Jonathon Mortimer) joining Katsuhiko Taguchi (Mark Stacey) and Scott Pedder (Glen Weston) in the Rally Hokkaido which got off to a ceremonial start here on Friday.

Gaurav, coming back after an accident that rendered him unfit for the first three rounds, is determined to push his Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX and try for a podium finish.

Crocker is leader

Motor Image Rally team’s Cody Crocker (Ben Atkinson) is the APRC leader, with 32 points.

It would gladden home fans if Taguchi, who started with a win at New Caledonia, can arrest the Australian’s winning sequence at this year’s event by coming up trumps in the first of the races to be held in the Asian continent. “We retired in Canberra due to mechanical troubles. We could have been first but are now two points behind. This is a home event for Mitsubishi also and so we want to win and turn the scores,” said the Japanese after a good ‘shakedown’ session on Friday.

Crocker, behind the wheels in a Subaru Impreza WRX STi, sounded cautious when queried about retaining his title here. “The rally is very technical and challenging. With the rain now, it’s doubly challenging.

“We are the first car on the road and so would be sweeping the surface away for the other drivers to get a big advantage on us. Hopefully we can be competitive,” said the defending APRC champion.

18 Special Stages

This leg has a total of 18 Special Stages covering 230.80 kilometres out of a total distance of 1195.54 kilometres to be run over the weekend. And Saturday could see some intense action over eight of those Special Stages.

The weather has been quite fickle and murky conditions have been forecast for the weekend. This can prove to be both a dampener and a boon to the 32 drivers entered and revved up to showcase their driving prowess in a centre that has hosted an APRC round six times so far.

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