The Hindu : Sport / Racing : Motor : It's Crocker's day all the way

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Monday, Jun 04, 2007
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Sport - Racing : Motor

It's Crocker's day all the way

K. Paul Abraham

Canberra: On a sunny day it was Cody Crocker who shone all along as the Aussie completed a memorable hat-trick win at the Rally of Canberra, the third round of the Asia Pacific Rally Championship (APRC) here on Sunday.

Crocker won six out of the eight Special Stages of the day and proved his mastery on the dusty tracks at home yet again. Katsuhiko Taguchi of Team MRF, who gave a tough fight to Crocker on Saturday, had an ordinary day and finished second.

Taguchi's teammate Jussi Valimaki fared much better on the final day and won two Special Stages to finish third and make it a 2-3 finish for Team MRF.

Crocker of Motor Image Rally Team finished with an overall timing of 2 hours 30 minutes and 51.6 seconds.

Taguchi trailed the winner by 1 minute and 0.3.6 seconds.

Technical trouble

"The turbo connecting pipe came off and troubled me and I lost time,'' said Taguchi, referring to his poor show. Crocker too had to overcome a bit of technical trouble (a steering problem) en route to his triumph.

"We had a bit of trouble yesterday (Saturday) but we overcame it'' said the champion who clinched his fourth overall victory here.

Crocker's teammate Rifat Sungkar took the fourth spot, while V.R. Naren Kumar of Team Rally India ended up fifth. The next round of the APRC, Rally Hokkaido (Japan), will be held from July 6-8.

The results (APRC round three): 1. Cody Crocker (Ben Atkinson), Motor Image Rally Team (2:30:51.6); 2. Katsuhiko Taguchi (Mark Stacey), Team MRF (2:31:55.2); 3. Jussi Valimaki (Jarkko Kalliolepo), Team MRF (2:33:08.3), 4: Rifat Sungkar (Herkusuma Mohammad), Motor Image Rally Team (2:38:27.7); 5.V.R. Naren Kumar (D. Ramkumar), Team Rally India (2:41:09.2); 6. Brian Green (Fleur Pedersen), Brian Green Motorsport Ltd. (2:46:46.4).

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