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Crocker's five Rally of Canberra wins eclipses his mentor Possum Bourne
11 May 2008
Cody Crocker has become the driver with the most wins in the 21-year history of the Rally of Canberra, his runaway success today eclipsing the four-title previous efforts of his mentor Possum Bourne and WA rally legend Ross Dunkerton.
Top seeds Crocker and co-driver Ben Atkinson, in the Motor Image Subaru Impreza, capitalised on their day one success and although easy winners of the Asia-Pacific section of the rally, nonetheless had to fend off a hard charge from Mitsubishi driver Katsu Taguchi, who had restarted today under SUPERrally rules.
Taguchi, co-driven by Australian Mark Stacey, knew his retirement with an electrical problem yesterday meant he couldn't win the rally, but as bonus points in the championship were still up for grabs as well as the points lead in the A-P series, the Japanese driver wasn't holding back.
Given the status and heritage of the Canberra event, Crocker was delighted to have more ROC wins than every other driver, and particularly pleased to top Bourne's record. Read more
Crocker at top pace while Pedder struggles
11 May 2008
It was a very busy mid-rally service on Day Two of the Rally of Canberra for Team MRF as Australian driver Scott Pedder limped into the Sutton Road complex after the rear differential was holed on his Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IV on the opening stage (SS10) today.
The diff lost all its oil and the Lancer reverted to front wheel drive as Pedder progressively lost time on the ensuing two stages (SS11, SS12). The diff was replaced on Pedder's car and he returned to the competition in third place. As a precaution, the same part was replaced on the sister car of Japanese driver Katsu Taguchi, who set a cracking pace on SS10 and SS11 to be the fastest of the Asia-Pacific competitors on those stages today.
However, it is Motor Image Subaru driver Cody Crocker who remains the dominant force in the A-P category and going into the service break enjoyed a formidable advantage of 1min41.4sec over his closest rival, fellow Australian Dean Herridge, also in a Subaru Impreza WRX STi. Read more
Penalties and restarts, Day 2
11 May 2008
Crocker raises the dust to lead rally as wildlife takes its toll
10 May 2008
Asia-Pacific champions Cody Crocker and co-driver Ben Atkinson dropped two stages to rival Scott Pedder but have developed a comfortable 38.8sec lead after an eventful day one in the Rally of Canberra today.
The day was not without its trials for the top-seeded Motor Image Subaru crew when twice during special stage one Crocker had to stamp hard on the brakes to avoid hitting kangaroos which had strayed onto the rally road. Read more
Volunteers recognised for contribution to ACT international event
10 May 2008
One of the stalwarts of Australian rallying, Mike Bell, accepted an award last night from the ACT Government on behalf of the more than 500 volunteer officials who are assisting in the running of this weekend's Rally of Canberra.
Bell, the Clerk of the Course for this year's ROC, has been involved in national rallying for nearly 30 years and is widely regarded as one of the sport's most effective administrators and event organizers. Read more
If you're interested in seeing rallying in Canberra 20 years ago, have a look at this!!
Japanese ace continues to set the pace in the 2008 Asia Pacific championship
9 May 2008
Japanese ace Katsu Taguchi has continued to set the pace in the 2008 Asia Pacific championship by posting the fastest time of the A-P competitors today during the shakedown run for this weekend's Rally of Canberra.
Taguchi, with vastly experienced Australian Mark Stacey as his co-driver, was quickest over the Bluetts Forest sprint with a time of 2min02sec in the MRF Lancer Evolution. The pair scored a nan declared their Canberra preparation was as good as it could possibly be.convincing win in the muddy opening round of the championship in New Caledonia last month and yesterday MRF team manager Lane Hee Read more
Indonesian rally champion ready for Canberra
8 May 2008
In his home country, seven-times Indonesian champion Rifat Sungkar is treated like rally royalty but in Canberra this weekend, he's stepping into territory which is owned by Australia's king of the forest, Cody Crocker.
While the two drivers might be team-mates aboard identical Subarus in the Asia-Pacific Rally Championship and in this weekend's Rally of Canberra, the lines of demarcation are well established. Read more
7 May 2008
The tempo is increasing in the lead-up to this weekend's international Rally of Canberra, with many of the teams engaged in intensive testing and shakedown sessions to have their cars in tip-top condition for the coming event.
Team MRF has wound up two solid days of testing in the Canberra's forests, with the team's newest recruit, Australian Scott Pedder showing strong pace together with Japanese ace Katsu Taguchi in their striking red Mitsubishi Lancer Evolutions.
Also flat out on the forest roads today (Tuesday) was the Canberra-based Toyota Racing Development (TRD) team of Neal Bates and reigning national champion Simon Evans, in a shared session at the Murrays Corner test track with British rally champion Guy Wilks, piloting his brand new Honda Civic Type R.
Tomorrow (Wednesday), one of the superstars of Australian and Asia-Pacific rallying, Cody Crocker, will be testing his Subaru Impreza STi. Cocker is the top seed for the Asia-Pacific section of the ROC.
The tents are going up and equipment unloaded at the ROC Service Park at the Sutton Road Driver Training School, and teams are aiming for an early night Wednesday in preparation for a lengthy day of reconnaisance on Thursday.
The ceremonial start for the rally is in Garema Place on Friday night in the centre of Canberra, with the huge field of 81 cars gathering to roll off the start ramp. It promises to be a busy and spectacular event. See you there!
Good Evans; he's back . . . and he's hungry
By any measure of performance, Simon Evans must qualify as the quickest rally driver on this continent.
The Victorian driver returns to this weekend's Rally of Canberra with an astonishing success record in national rallying: unbeaten in all 12 heats of the series during 2007 and two consecutive national titles under his belt.
Little wonder no-one in the Toyota Racing Development team complains during testing when he arrives back on the service mat yet again, asking for another tweak here and a change of springs there.
Evans and team-mate Neal Bates were back out in the forest on Tuesday (May 6), going for test lap after test lap in their TRD Toyota Corolla S2000 cars, searching for that extra edge in speed and control.
While Bates was pretty pleased with his set-up after a morning's work, Evans kept returning to the track, still seeking his optimum package.
“We've got all day to test so I'm not holding back; I haven't had this opportunity before with this new car so I'm making the most of it,” Evans admitted.
“We started off with getting the brakes sorted out, now I'm trying a few things with spring rates.”
And so relaxed is Evans behind the wheel, that in between suspension changes he napped.
For this Australian Rally Championship season, Evans has switched from the turbocharged Group N Corolla which has brought him so much success into a newly-built S2000 car for his title defence.
The new car is identical in specification to the one which his team-mate and TRD rally boss Neal Bates campaigned last season but incorporates all the new ideas and updates which have occurred as the previous season progressed.
Evans was thrown into the deep end with his new car for the opening round of the Australian Rally Championship in Perth last month, jumping straight into the new car with little preparation or set-up time.
“My car was finished at Neal's workshop, rolled into the truck and driven straight to Perth for the rally so all things considered, I'm pretty pleased with how quick we were straight off the bat,” he said.
“I was leading the rally into the second day when the engine let go.”
The Corolla S2000 cars built by the Bates team at their Hume workshop are state-of-the-art international rally machinery and vastly different to the production-based turbocharged cars of previous seasons.
The new cars are much “peakier” in the way they produce their performance. Where the turbo cars produced a generous 500 Newton-metres of torque – or pulling power – from their engines, the S2000 produces half as much.
The upside to the new cars is they are about 200kgs lighter, have greater suspension sophistication, and a sequential gearbox which seamlessly changes gears in an eyeblink. When driven on the limit out in the forest, the hard-revving Corollas sound like angry hornets. It's a chain-saw buzz which becoming familiar to rally fans as more S2000 cars join the competition.
“I love this new car; it's actually more difficult to drive because all the power is you have this really narrow band right at the top of the rev range so you have to really focus on getting your entry to corners and your gearchanges exactly right,” Evans explained.
“The old car was more forgiving, but from a driver's point of view the S2000 is technically more challenging; more like a race car for the forest, really.”
Also testing on the same rally track as the TRD team yesterday was reigning British champion Guy Wilks, aboard his Italian-built front-wheel-drive Civic Type R.
Wilks also had a busy day sorting out his Honda, declaring the striking little two-door coupe as “a great little package which will only get better”.
Today (May 7) reigning Asia-Pacific champion Cody Crocker goes testing in his Subaru Impreza WRX STi, followed by a full day of reconnaisance for all competitors on Thursday (May 8).
Team MRF has solid hit-out in preparation for Rally of Canberra
Team MRF had its first hit-out on the Canberra rally roads this week with some solid test sessions on the Hyles Block stages near the Urriara Forestry settlement in preparation for this weekend's Rally of Canberra.
The team has arrived in Australia as first-up winners in the Asia-Pacific championship, with Japan's Katsu Taguchi scoring in the opening round in New Caledonia.
Taguchi had enjoyed a comfortable lead after day one, then was able to consolidate on day two when his closest rival and Australian team-mate Scott Pedder had a flat tyre, then later slipped off the road.
The team has three cars in the Asia-Pacific component of the rally, with Taguchi, Pedder and Indian driver Guarav Gill all aboard striking red Mitsubishi Lancer Evolutions.
After some quick laps during the test session on the dry, dusty Hyles roads, Taguchi declared that he was already quite happy with the suspension set-up of his car as it had run in New Caledonia and was now looking for the right tyre for the Canberra conditions, which he expects will be dramatically different from the opening round.
“New Caledonia was wet on day two, with a very slow stage near the end with much mud and very tricky,” he said.
“This is very different but I have quite a bit of experience here; I have been coming to Canberra nine times now so have a good idea what to expect.”
The ROC is only Pedder's second event in a left-hand drive car and he admits he's still adapting to being on the “wrong” side of the car.
“I haven't changed gears with the window winder yet, so that's a good thing!” he quipped.
“But I've still got to fine-tune myself a little bit more and these test sessions are certainly helping that.”
What's new about the Canberra rally this year is that it starts with the longest special stage: nearly 29kms of flat-out running over the loose, dusty roads at Tidbinbilla.
“On both days, half of the competitive distance of the rally is in the first three stages,” Pedder explained.
“That means there's no way you can ease yourself in and get a feel for it; it will be absolutely flat-out from the start.
“If you're too slow out of the blocks, you won't make make up that time later.”
Giant Indian tyre maker MRF has brought 230 specialised rally tyres to Canberra for the three cars, and another 80 are on their way this week. So Pedder and his team-mates should have a good choice of rubber regardless of what weather Canberra throws up this weekend.
“Canberra is a bit of a weird place to rally because when it rains, the roads actually get better,” Pedder said.
“When it's dry and dusty, it [the road] breaks up as more traffic goes over it. But there's also some tricky sections which might look like bulldust, but underneath is this really hard-packed clay surface.”
Rally of Canberra's largest ever field
82 entries are now locked in for next week’s Rally of Canberra, including Guy Wilks, current British Rally Champion, driving a factory-prepared Honda Civic.
The Rally of Canberra will be the largest forest rally ever seen in Canberra and this large field confirms the ACT event as one of Australia’s most significant rallies.
The Rally of Canberra is the second round of the prestigious FIA Asia Pacific Rally Championship (APRC) the second round of the Australian Rally Championship (ARC) and a round of the PCD Engineering ACT Rally Series. Its three rallies rolled into one, and featuring a a wide variety of world-class machinery. The rally starts in Garema Place in the heart of Canberra’s CBD at 6:30pm next Friday night (May 9) with a ceremonial start.
This is the 21st running of the Rally of Canberra, making it the longest running international rally in Australia. Canberra is famous for rallying world wide since the late 70’s when stars like Finland ’s Ari Vatenen and Stig Blomqvist competed, with special stages on roads in yet-to-be-completed ACT suburbs.
Asia-Pacific teams are entered from Indonesia, India, Japan, New Caledonia, New Zealand and Australia. A record number of crews from overseas have entered the rally.
Canberra is the home to Neal Bates, Canberra’s own three-times Australian rally champion and the current leader in the 2008 Australian Rally Championship after a superb win in WA in the Toyota Racing Development rally team, where he competes against his team-mate, Simon Evans, last year’s championship winner who is out to knock off the “boss” in his similar S2000 Corolla.
ACT local businesses are also winners with teams and spectators flocking to the rally, drawn by the city’s proximity to the rally course and its world-class food, entertainment and accommodation. Canberra’s stunning scenery will be featured on Network Ten sports coverage and in press coverage around the world an extra bonus to the ACT.
Over 20 international journalists, along with national and local TV crews, will cover the event.
The action begins on Saturday morning with spectating in Kowen Forest, east of Canberra. Entry is opposite the Sutton Road Driver training complex and directions are well signposted. Tickets are available at the gate.
ENDS
