Crocker takes lead

By D. Sampath Kumar

Whangarei, New Zealand

June 7: When the going gets tough, the tough get going. Defending champion Cody Crocker of Australia made good use of his driving skills to negotiate the slippery gravel and take the advantage in the third leg of the Asia-Pacific Rally Championship.

Riding his new Subaru Impreza WRX STi for Motor Image Rally Team, Crocker (co-driver Ben Atkinson) concentrated on powering through the stages ahead of his APRC competitors to improve his position in the New Zealand leg, where he is yet to record a win.

The problems suffered by leading competitors — Australians Dean Herridge and Scott Pedder — also enabled Crocker to end the day on top position. Both Herridge and Pedder suffered gearbox problems during the first four stages of the day.

Lady luck was also on Crocker’s side on Saturday. Though he had wheel bearing problems in the seventh stage, Crocker managed to end the race to claim stage points.

Herridge lost the fifth gear and returned to service at lunchtime to have his Cusco Racing Subaru repaired while Pedder’s MRF Tyres Mitsubishi required a new gearbox during the 20-minute service opportunity before heading out for the afternoon’s repeated running of the morning’s four stages.

Japan’s Katsuhiko Taguchi (navigator Mark Stacey), retained his second position for Team MRF as he ended the day behind Crocker, while Scott Pedder (navigator Glen Weston) of Team MRF was third.

Crocker feels that it was the new version of the car that helped him hold an advantage. "The car is really good. The slippery road, that was hard to deal with, posed problems. Negotiating the turns was very difficult. The drive even on straights was not that easy as the car was wandering all over the road," said Crocker. "I had to be cautious of gravel throughout the race and concentrated on pushing hard to be ahead of the APRC challengers," he added.