by Brian Young
Cody Crocker has become the driver with the most wins in the 21-year history of the Rally of Canberra, his runaway success last weekend eclipsing the four-title previous efforts of his mentor Possum Bourne and WA rally legend Ross Dunkerton.
Top seeds Crocker and co-driver Ben Atkinson, in the Motor Image
Subaru Impreza, capitalised on their day one success and although easy winners of the Asia-Pacific section of the rally, nonetheless had to fend off a hard charge from Mitsubishi driver Katsu Taguchi, who had restarted under the SupeRally rules.
Taguchi, co-driven by Australian Mark Stacey, knew his retirement with an electrical problem on day one meant he couldn't win the rally, but as bonus points in the championship were still up for grabs as well as the points lead in the A-P series, the Japanese driver wasn't holding back.
Given the status and heritage of the Canberra event, Crocker was delighted to have more ROC wins than every other driver, and particularly pleased to top Bourne's record.
"But I'm sure he [Bourne] is somewhere out there saying 'well, it took you long enough to do it!'," Crocker said.
"But our car was terrific today; we didn't have a drama and our tyre choices were spot on. We knew Katsu was pushing hard for the bonus points so we had to fight back and in the end, we only just held him off.
"The big question for our Motor Image team now, given this car is so quick and well-sorted, when do we switch to the new car?
"We know we will switch to it sometime soon and of course, there are always some unknown quantities in running a new car. So that challenge is still ahead of us."
Taguchi and Crocker staged a terrific battle for the bonus points during the afternoon and over the course of day two's competition, the Australian took the three extra points by just 0.4 seconds, with Taguchi collecting just two for the entire event.
![Cody Crocker / Ben Atkinson - Motor Image Subaru Impreza. Rally of Canberra. APRC [Pic credit: Linear Photographs]](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/438575.jpg)
