It's hard not to draw comparisons between Sebastian Loeb and Cody Crocker. Though Loeb is nothing short of a legend in the sport, winning his fourth driver championship last year, Crocker meanwhile is doing his reputation no harm by continuing his dominance in the APRC and emerging as one of the best group N drivers in the world. Sure, the PWRC is a notch above APRC but the composure that Crocker has displayed especially under pressure, is second only to Loeb.

Crocker's only loss in more than two years in the championship came in Indonesia but other than that, the Aussie hasn't put a foot wrong. Whenever he has felt a hint of pressure from a competing driver, he's simply put his foot down. His car undoubtedly has been the best prepared in the championship and driver errors have been few and far between. Team MRF then surely has an uphill task if they want to find a way around Crocker's dominance.

Unfortunately at the fourth round of the APRC held in New Zealand, not only did Crocker take his second victory of the season but also took over the championship lead from MRF driver Katsu Taguchi. Though MRF was again without the services of Gaurav Gill (Gill would be tak¬ing part in the next round in Japan), the fast flowing stages of New Zealand were to the liking of the Evo IX which quite frankly has struggled both in terms of pace and reliability compared to the Impreza. The Evo X was launched nearly a year ago and last year in the WRC Rally of Jflpan when it performed the duty of the route opening car that has been its only ever rallying experience.

Mitsubishi has been testing the car on tarmac and gravel (Katsu Taguchi is the chief test driver) but the Evo X has so far received very poor reports and the car entering rally¬ing in the near future is hugely unlikely. Team MRF Tyres therefore has no choice but to continue work on the Evo IX. In the PWRC, Intercontinental Rally Championship and the British Rally Championship, the Evo IX has been consistently beating the Impreza thereby giving MRF hope that in the APRC too they can put one over Crocker.

Cody Crocker who is considered to be a protege of Possum Bourne (former APRC champion from New Zealand), relishes the stages in New Zealand and was on the money from the opening stage. The Australian was keep¬ing well clear of Taguchi in the Evo and led the APRC, winning all the stages before coming for the first service.
Though Crocker led the APRC, Kiwi Chris West on a Evo IX led the rally over all. The cars running on the Rally of New Zealand had the advantage of running on cleaner roads and hence were faster than the APRC cars "The roads were very slippery; even on the fast straights you're flat out in fifth gear and there's not really a line anywhere - the car's wandering all over the road.

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It's just the road surface is so slippery that it is hard to deal with. You can see the difference between our times and the Kiwi times; it's a monumental dif¬ference. We haven't heard about what's happening with the Kiwis; we're focusing on keeping the APRC guys behind us at the moment," said Crocker. Taguchi was in third place in the APRC, behind team-mate Scott Pedder. "Not so good, driving not very well. A lot of road sweeping, Cody is still very fast. Car is perfect, going good, so we'll see.

Maybe better this afternoon with the repeat so we could push a bit harder," said Taguchi. Pedder however lost time in the third stage after losing first and fifth gear in his car. Towards the end of the day, Crocker kept his foot down and even made some time back from the Kiwi drivers but remained in third overall and led the APRC all day. Taguchi was able to take second place from Pedder but was able to win only one of the eight stages from Crocker on the opening day. Trailing Crocker by nearly a minute and a half, Taguchi realistically wouldn't

have expected to get past Cody unless the reigning champion suffered problems with the car. The MRF driver immediately started matching the times set by Crocker and was on the pace from the word go. "Not too bad this morni ng, better than yesterday. The rain, I think helps a little bit; better than yesterday but it's still very dry and there is lose gravel on top. Today there is a little more grip than yesterday and the car also has been very good," said Taguchi.

Crocker however didn't allow Taguchi to crawl back into the rally and also upped his pace when he saw that the MRF driver was on a charge. The Aussie wrapped up his second consecutive win of the championship and also won the second day outright in the APRC from Taguchi by 31 seconds. "Today was better than yesterday. We had good stage times today, we were very happy to get back here. Very good roads for driv¬ing and we chose better tyres so the car has been handling really good," said Taguchi at the end of the rally.

Scott Pedder finished third in the APRC. The Australian driver showed signs of improvement since his debut for MRF in New Caledonia, trailing Taguchi by only five seconds in the second day. Kiwi drivers Chris West and Hayden Paddon earned bragging rights as they finished the rally in first and second ahead of defending Asia Pacific champion Cody Crocker. The Asia Pacific competitors next head to Japan for RaJ ly Hokkaido and MRF would be hoping that Taguchi would have the meas¬ure of Crocker in his backyard.