Heavy rain dampens Crocker's title bid at Rally of Hokkaido

Cody Crocker’s time was 1 hours, 49 mins and 16.7 seconds, giving him a fourth placing, while his MIRT teammate, Rifat Sungkar secured fifth placing, with a time of 1 hours, 53 mins and 27.1 seconds.

Day 1 of the rally ended on a gloomy note, with torrential rainfall pummeling the gravel-covered roads. The bad weather caused several roads to be impassable, resulting in the cancellation of stages 3, 7 and 8. Several drivers were even sidelined on Day 1, including MRF Tyres’ Scott Pedder and Takuma Kamada of Team Arai.

A sudden thunderstorm just before stage 6 rendered the route a complete washout, much to the disadvantage of the drivers, especially Crocker who was in sweeper position. Pushing through the flood of rainwater caused the MIRT driver to drop almost three minutes over the 30km route.

With the weather clearing up on Day 2, both MIRT drivers started off the rally on a better note. After a disappointing end to Day 1, Crocker managed to win five stages out of 10, making a stirring recovery in the final stages of the rally. This was enough to secure him an eventual fourth in the final placing, just 19.8 seconds behind Cusco Racing’s Dean Herridge.

“The roads of Hokkaido are one of the toughest in the Championship and the extremely wet weather made the road conditions almost impossible to drive in for everyone. Day 1 was just dismal with stage 6 being a complete mud bath and some stages cancelled. It’s been extremely difficult but we managed to catch up today by winning a couple of stages. I can’t say that I’m not disappointed but that’s rallying for you – it’s always full of ups and downs. We’ve learnt a whole lot here today and it just makes me more determined to do well in the rest of the rallies,” said Crocker.

Sungkar, assisted by co-driver Bill Hayes, had a relatively trouble-free outing which resulted in a fifth placing, just behind his MIRT counterpart, Crocker. “Bill and I have had experience with Hokkaido from last year and I believe this contributed to our clean run and consistent timings today. But it has been a really tough weekend, and the road conditions were just punishing so I was glad and relieved to cross the finishing line. We’ve got three more rallies to go and I’m determined to do better in those, especially with the Rally of Indonesia being my homeground,” said Sungkar.

Held yearly in Hokkaido, Japan, the Rally of Hokkaido is the fourth round of the seven-leg APRC. This is the seventh year the Japan leg of the APRC is held at the Obihiro Race Course in Hokkaido, the home of the world’s one and only Banei sleigh horse race. The Rally of Hokkaido comprises of a total of 230.8km over 18 stages of gravel-covered routes, through flat basin terrain and foothills of mountain ranges. A total of 61 cars from four countries competed in this year’s rally, of which eight were APRC-registered participants.

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