Asia Pacific Rally Championship

Rd.5 Malaysian Rally

Crocker wins Malaysia to make it ten from ten on APRC

13 August 2007
Copyright © STI 
Subaru rally driver, Cody Crocker, has made it ten wins from ten starts in the Asia-Pacific Rally Championship (APRC), after adding the Rally Malaysia title to his impressive resume today. As well as the APRC victory, Crocker took outright honours in Malaysia as well, beating home fellow Impreza WRX STI driver, Toshi Arai, by 24 seconds.

Since joining the APRC last year, Crocker and co-driver Ben Atkinson have not been beaten. Their form in 2007, driving for the Singapore-based MotorImage team, has been nothing short of sensational. They have collected the maximum 16 points in all four events this year - in Canberra, New Zealand, Japan and now Malaysia.

Crocker sits on top of the points table with 64 points, a perfect score, and only needs to accumulate another four points across the final two events ? in Indonesia and China ? to secure his second straight APRC crown. The Victorian driver is now 28 points ahead of Katsu Taguchi on 36 points and 31 clear of Jussi Valimaki, on 33 points.

Both Taguch and Valimaki were forced out of the rally today when their Mitsubishis experienced mechanical problems. The only points they added to their tally were bonus points from finishing second and third respectively on the opening day yesterday. Another Subaru driver, Hiroshi Yanagisawa from CUSCO RACING made crash on SS1. The damage was too serious and he forced retire from the event.

Crocker was delighted with the victory, which came in trying conditions.

Copyright © STI 
"Making it ten straight wins was really important to us, so it was a relief to get to the finish line knowing we've achieved that goal," Crocker said. "It was a fantastic result and things seem to be getting better and better for us.It was an incredibly tough weekend. The heat is just so intense; the roads are really testing, so it's physically exhausting. You have to put so much more effort into driving."

"Our pace notes were fantastic, a big advantage from doing these events for a second time, and once again Ben did an awesome job calling them."

The penultimate round of the 2007 APRC is Rally Indonesia which takes place from September 7 to 9.

Pos.   Driver Co Driver Car Time
1 * Cody Crocker Ben Atkinson SUBARU IMPREZA WRX STI 2:49'46
2 * Toshihiro Arai Glenn MACNEALL SUBARU IMPREZA WRX STI 2:50'10
3 * Naren Kumar Jeff Judo MITSUBISHI EBO 9 2:55'43
4 * Brian Green Fleur Pedersen MITSUBISHI EVO 9 3:04'16
5 * Subhan Aksa Hade Mboi MITSUBISHI EVO 8 3:11'48
6 * Rifat Sungkar Mohamad Herkusuma SUBARU IMPREZA 3:11'17
7 * Gaurav Gill Karl Francis MITSUBISHI EVO 7 3:18'56
8 * Hiroshi Yanagisawa Tadashi Misaizu SUBARU IMPREZA WRX -
*APRC Entry