MAJOR CASUALTIES ON DAY ONE, APRC IN MALAYSIA
At the end of Leg One only 10 of 19 drivers finished, Four were Pirelli Stars.
11/10/2008

11th October, Johor, Malaysia - With their chance of stardom on the world rally stage riding on the result in Johor, Malaysia, the ten young Pirelli Star Drivers held nothing back today in the Ancom Malaysian Rally 2008. Disappointingly, tricky conditions in the oil palm estates sent half the field packing in the first four SS.

Even the more experienced Asia Pacific Rally Championship drivers were finding the first few stages very challenging so it wasn’t a surprise to see the less experienced Pirelli youngsters crashing out.

The two stars from the Pirelli Star qualifying round in New Zealand who received STG5,000 to campaign in Johor were early casualties. Brad Ayling clipped a tree in SS1, spun out and hit another oil palm before finally stopping with serious damage.

“I don’t think we can fix the car overnight so that’s it. It’s very disappointing,” Ayling said.

Hayden Paddon took a slippery corner in SS3, hit a bump which unsettled the car and clipped the front end of his Mitsubishi Lancer EVO 9 on a tree. “We pushed the wheel well back into the wheel arch which damaged the oil cooler. So we weren’t going anywhere,” Paddon said. “Hopefully we can fix it overnight and try to be back in the race tomorrow.”

According to most of the drivers, the stages were more slippery than they had anticipated and so the dry tyres they had chosen to start the race were not gripping. To make it worse, by the beginning of SS5 the skies had opened and by SS7 only four Pirelli Drivers were left in the race. Mark Tapper had clocked the fastest overall time, with Eli Evans close behind. Arjun Rao and Rizal Sungkar had also managed to finish the difficult race.

Cody Crocker, finished first, but said conditions were tricky and slippery. Coming into this Round he was trailing APRC championship leader Taguchi by six points. “Taguchi piled on the pressure but we were determined to run the rally at our own pace and that was exactly what we did,” Crocker said.

The heavy rain hampered Japanese driver, Taguchi’s line of sight in SS6 and he put his Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9 into a ditch and couldn’t recover. He will start again tomorrow. This could dash his hopes for a strong finish this weekend. This is Taguchi’s last APRC round for 2008. Crocker still has the seventh and final round in China to earn championship points.

In the local Championship, leader Karamjit Singh came in first as anticipated. This means he has secured the two points he needs to clinch the Championship, with one round still to go.

The battle for second looks like good for Gunaseelan Rajoo as Lim Leong Onn did not finish Leg One today after suffering a gear box failure in SS4.

Official results will be posted at www.malaysianrally.com