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Crocker's Rally Australia campaign revived |
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Written by Peter Whitten
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Tuesday, 25 August 2009 |
 Subaru rally driver Cody Crocker has been thrown a lifeline and will contest next week’s Repco Rally Australia, the tenth round of the FIA World Rally Championship.
The three-time Australian and three-time Asia-Pacific Rally Champion will drive for the Tasmanian-based Les Walkden Rallying (LWR) team in the event, re-establishing a partnership that won the 2006 Asia-Pacific Rally Championship title.
Thirty-seven year old Crocker was originally entered in Rally Australia
as part of an Indonesian team, however freight complications looked to
have ended his chances of contesting his home WRC event.
However, an eleventh hour deal has been struck between Crocker, Les
Walkden Rallying and an Indonesian businessman, that will see the
Victorian lining up in a 2008 Subaru Impreza WRX STI looking to take
top honours in the Group N production car class.
“It’s a tremendous opportunity, and is a huge relief after the problems
that looked to have ended our chances of competing,” Crocker said.
“A driver always wants to compete in the most important event on home soil, and it doesn’t get any bigger than Rally Australia.
“Thanks to Les Walkden and Ricardo (Crocker’s Indonesian sponsor),
we’ve been able to get everything sorted and I can’t wait to get up to
northern New South Wales and start the event.”
 Cody Crocker & Ben Atkinson will contest Repco Rally Australia.
The Group N (production) car will be converted from tarmac to gravel specification.
“Rally Australia is a really important event for us,” Crocker added. “A
lot of the bosses from Subaru and STI will be at the rally, so we’ll be
putting our best foot forward to achieve the best possible result.
“The car will run in a similar specification to the Subaru I use in the
Asia-Pacific Championship. It will have the diff and engine mapping
settings from my APRC car, so it should be very similar in performance.”
LWR boss, Les Walkden, is delighted to have Crocker back driving for his team.
“It’s important to have the best possible Australian representation at
our round of the WRC, and Cody is the perfect man to have behind the
wheel,” Walkden said.
“This is the biggest stage in Australian rallying, and it’s the perfect opportunity for Cody and LWR to strut our stuff.
“Cody has an incredible record over the past 10 or 11 years. He won his
first APRC title driving for our team in 2006, and we’re thrilled to be
working with him again.”
Crocker will test the LWR Impreza WRX STI at an official World Rally
Championship shakedown next Monday, before embarking on the event later
next week.
Repco Rally Australia begins with a super special stage around the
streets of Murwillumbah on Thursday night, September 3. Over the next
three days competitors will tackle 35 special stages comprising 340
competitive kilometres.
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