Team MRF went through a series of ups and downs in the Australian leg of the Asian Pacific Rally Championship on Saturday. At the end of the first day, Gaurav Gill was placed third while Katsuhiko Taguchi ended the day in fifth place.
Gill and co-driver Glenn Macneall had a good day overall as they finished top in four out of the 10 stages of the day, but lost out due to car trouble later on.
“Unfortunately we had a brake problem in the morning. We had no brakes at all and had to nurse the car out of the longest stage of the day,” said Gill. “We managed to get some grips and go back into the remaining stages and clock good timings.”
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The highlight of the day, though, was a tremendous fight back by Proton's Alister McRae in his Satria Neo S2000. Twelfth after the second stage, the Scotsman finally got his act together and claimed three stages on the day to jump to the top of the leaderboard.
Leader overnight and home favourite Chris Atkinson in the other Proton did not have a good day out in the forests of Imbil as he was forced to retire early because of an electrical problem.
Local lad Nathan Quinn of the Coffs Coast Rally Team was the surprise package of the day as he jumped to second spot, without having claimed even one victory. Quinn, along with co-driver David Green, posted steady times across all the stages, reminiscent of Gill on his way to the title here in the last edition.
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Team MRF's Katsuhiko Taguchi made a strong start and briefly went to the top but a series of average timings thereafter cost him his perch.
“I'm not happy with the handling due to which I had major problems with over-steering at several occasions. But the timings were not so bad. Tomorrow (Sunday) we shall try for new suspensions, adjust them better for a better performance,” he said.
Gaurav Gill, the winner here last year, will be looking to put in a good shift on Sunday and hope to make up for the time lost to McRae and Higgins at one of the most challenging circuits of the tournament.
Provisional results (after Special Stage 12): 1. Alister McRae (Proton) 1:16:10.6s; 2. Nathan Quinn (CCRT) 1:16:18.8; 3. Gaurav Gill (MRF) 1:16:20.0; 4. Mark Higgins (Soueast Motor) 1:16:29.9 and 5. Katsuhiko Taguchi (MRF) 1:16:42.3.