By Cheryl Tay

IT WAS victory again for the Motor Image Racing Team (MIRT) and defending champion Cody Crocker at the FIA Asia-Pacific Rally Championship (APRC) Malaysian Rally last month.

The weekend of Aug 15-16 saw the fourth consecutive win for MIRT, Crocker and his Subaru Impreza WRX STI in this year's APRC. Making this victory sweeter was having the only all-female APRC duo - Emma Gilmour and Claire Mole - in second place, hence giving MIRT its first one-two APRC finish.

The Malaysian Rally at Kota Tinggi was tough as drivers meandered their way through the narrow tracks of the palm oil plantations, which were made even more slippery because of the rain earlier.

Suffering the worst fate from the slippery roads was Katsuhiko Taguchi of MRF Tyres.

Despite having a wealth of experience - he has been participating in APRC since 1997 - Taguchi still fell victim to the wet conditions and retired early on the first day after his Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IV slipped into a ditch during Special Stage 7.

"We misjudged the first corner and assumed it was less slippery than it actually was," said Taguchi's co-driver Mark Stacey.

"Our momentum took us over the edge of the road and we went sideways into the gutter. With no traction to get out, we were forced to retire."

Teammate Gaurav Gill also retired due to mechanical problems with his Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X.

The next day, Gil was eager to make a comeback and at least scored some points. He worked his Evo X hard and managed to clock the fastest times for four stages.

Taguchi, however, had no change in luck and put up a disappointing performance once more when his car experienced extensive damage and ended all hopes of closing in on Crocker.

While it was fairly smooth for Crocker, Gilmour - who is having her first full season with MIRT - encountered a string of problems as she rallied in Malaysia for the first time.

Besides having to cultivate a bond with her replacement co-driver Claire Mole (her previous co-driver met with an accident in the recent Rally South Australia), Gilmour had to endure intercom failure for two stages and a bent steering arm where she had to turn the steering wheel 90 degrees to the left just to drive the car straight.

Undeterred, she persisted through the sweltering tropical heat and slippery roads to successfully capitalise on Taguchi's early exit and achieve her best APRC result so far. As for Crocker, he said it was most unfortunate for Taguchi and he would have welcomed more competition.

"I guess he put himself under lots of pressure to beat us," added Crocker.

"I put pressure on myself too, to better my results and to keep winning. Once you win something, you don't want to lose it - that's my motivation. Besides, I won't get sick of winning."

• The next APRC event will be Rally Indonesia on Oct 3-4

btnews@sph.com.sg

This article was first published in The Business Times.