BATTLE OF THE CHAMPIONS IN ANCOM MALAYSIAN RALLY 2007 (mr7)
31st July 2007

Round 5 of the FIA Asia Pacific Rally Championship (APRC) to be held in the palm oil plantations of Johor, Malaysia promises to be an exciting round with no less than four former APRC champions in competition. At close of entries, a total of 12 teams have confirmed their participation in what is also Round 3 of the local Malaysian Rally Championship.

2006 APRC and mr6 champion Cody Crocker returns to Malaysia in the MotorImage Rally Team and he will be joined by team mate Rifat Sungkar and 2005 Production World Rally Champion (P-WRC) Toshihiro Arai. All 3 drivers on board their Subaru Impreza WRX will surely be locked in a close fight with the MRF Tyres Rally Team in their Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9. Katsu Taguchi and Jussi Valimaki will be joined by young Indian driver, Gaurav Gill. This will be the first time Gill will be rallying in Malaysia and his second APRC drive of the season after his big off in New Caledonia where he wrote off his Mitsubishi on Stage 3.

Other notable entries include the Indonesian Pertamina GG Rally Team with Subhan Aksa and Akbar Hadianto in Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 8’s and Brian Green who was the winner of mr4. Brian is no stranger to rallying in Malaysia and has always been a fan favourite. Naren Kumar who is a six time winner of the Indian National Rally championship will be another new face at the rally this year and will be with Team Rally India on board a Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9.

Three time Malaysian APRC and the first Asian P-WRC Champion Karamjit Singh has just taken delivery of his Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 8 rally car and will have a tough task ahead of him competing against his younger compatriots. Singh is aiming for a good finish to keep his new sponsors happy and will definitely have the home fans cheering him on.

Cody Crocker currently has a dominating lead in the Championship despite missing the opening round in New Caledonia. He is 14 points clear of his closest rival Katsu Taguchi with 34 points in second place while team mate Jussi Valimaki is only 2 points adrift in third place.

Ancom Malaysian Rally 2007 will be held on August 10-12 in the plantations around Felda Bandar Tenggara in Johor. The start will be officiated by the Chief Minister of Johor in Danga Bay on Friday 10th August at 9pm.

FIA APRC Championship Winners