The Hindu : Sport / Racing : Motor : Cody Crocker emerges clear winner

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Monday, Aug 13, 2007
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Sport - Racing : Motor

Cody Crocker emerges clear winner

V.V. Subrahmanyam

Naren Kumar came second with a timing of 2:50.10
Jussi Valimaki and Katsuhiko Taguchi failed to finish

JOHOR BHARU (MALAYSIA): The weather may have fluctuated from heat and humidity to sharp showers on the first two days.

But, the 37-year-old Australian, Cody Crocker, was just consistent enough at the wheel on what most of the drivers described to be a treacherous route to emerge a clear winner in the fifth round of the FIA Asia Pacific Car Rally mr7 championship here on Sunday.

Crocker, driving a Subaru Impreza WRX with co-driver Ben Atkinson, finished with a total timing of 2:49.46 seconds, followed by India’s Naren Kumar of Team Rally India (with co-driver Jeff Judd in Mitsubushi Lancer) with 2:50.10 and Brian Green, with co-driver Fleur Pedersen, in Mitsubishi Lancer with 2:55.43.

Crocker, who won on his first attempt here last year, later said that it was one of the toughest rallies he had ever taken part.

“We battled long and I should thank my team for putting up a wonderful job,” he said looking towards Atkinson.

“It was very difficult to see the surface change so quickly from dry to wet and slippery between the stages. It is amazing that the car withstood all this,” he said.

Technical snags

In fact, Crocker’s triumph looked far more easier than it appeared for the simple reason that two of the main challengers, Jussi Valimaki (co-driver Jarkko Kalliolepo) and Katsuhiko Taguchi (co-driver Mark Stacey of Japan), both representing MRF Tyres Rally Team, failed to finish as the cars hit technical snags (differential problems).

While Valimaki had the misfortune of this snag in the first stage, Taguchi suffered a similar fate in the second stage.

“This technical snag never happened to me before. This year seems to be terrible as I have been facing one problem or the other.

“Today we had problems with some school boys too as the tulips were off the mark,” he said in the morning.

Gaurav Gill of MRF Tyres Rally also had similar problem, but fortunately he finished the rally.

“The centre shaft was causing the slippages. We had lot of punctures too, but it has been a learning experience,” Gaurav said later.

Naren pleased

The 33-year-old Naren was pleased with his performance.

“The route was very, very narrow and quite fast at some places. It kept us on the edge right through. There was very little margin for error,” he said.

The final placings: