By Anand Philar, IANS
Longyou (China) : China Rally, the seventh and final round of the 2007 Asia Pacific Rally Championship (APRC), is headed to a farcical finish following retirement of all but two contenders, at the finish of the second day, amidst suspicion of “fuel contamination” that took out leading Mitsubishi Lancer cars, including those of Team MRF.
The APRC field was left with just two cars, those of Cody Crocker’s Subaru and Brian Green’s Mitsubishi Evo 9. Crocker just has to start the rally to clinch his second consecutive APRC crown, reducing the final day’s proceedings Sunday to a mere formality.
For Team MRF’s three-car team, it was a wretched day after a promising start when their lead drivers, Katsu Taguchi and Jussi Valimakki, both former champions, kept pace with Crocker. However, towards the close of the day, misfortune struck MRF as Taguchi rolled over his Evo 9 on Special Stage 8 (SS-8) when trailing Crocker by 17.5 seconds.
At the conclusion of the next stage, both Valimakki and debutant Gaurav Gill packed up with suspected contamination.
Valimakki, the 2005 champion, just about managed to reach to the Service Park while Gill’s Evo 7 had to be towed back.
Up until then, Gill had given a fine performance and was even the second fastest on SS-4 behind Taguchi and ahead of Crocker and Valimakki. Considering his relatively underpowered car, it was a tremendous effort from Gill.
“I am extremely disappointed that I had to retire. The car shut off midway through the stage (SS-9) and I lost about three minutes before I managed to restart the engine. And once I got out of the stage, the engine shut off,” said Gill.
Joining the list of APRC retirements were two Subaru Imprezas of Indonesia’s Rifat Sungkar who rolled out of contention and Hiroshi Yanagisawa, another victim of suspected fuel contamination.
Although the Super Rally format permits restart in Leg II, Team MRF’s technical director Lane Heenan said the three MRF contenders would not take any further part in the Rally that concludes Sunday when six Special Stages are to be run over 95.13 km.
Crocker set the pace through the day with Taguchi snapping at his heels. The competition was intense with the manufacturers title at stake. Going into the event, Subaru led Mitsubishi 74-72 in the points tally.
However, the day ended on a sour note with those affected by fuel problems crying foul and deciding against a restart.
Incidentally, the treacherous SS-9 marked by winding mountain track, claimed many victims, most of them from the Chinese championship that is being run concurrently with the APRC.