The company was established in 1984, and along with Andrew Cowan Motorsports was responsible for Mitsubishi’s dominence in the WRC during the mid to late 90’s. Most recently Ralliart has tasted success in the Dakar Rally.

The announcement is not expected to effect the Pirelli Star Driver competition, which is run by Ralliart Italy.

However, it may cause problems for Katsu Taguchi. Although part of the MRF team in the APRC, Taguchi received support from Ralliart Japan and it’s not yet known whether the closure will impact his chances of competing in the APRC this year.

Photos courtesy of murphydean and realname.

The Gunma-based team contested the Asia Cup in 2009, with Japanese drivers Hiroshi Yanagisawa and Yuya Sumiyama piloting a pair of brand-new EVO X Lancers. With their 2009 development year behind them, it is believed they have ruled out contesting Rally New Caledonia, leaving Rally Whangarei as a likely extra event for 2010.

Photo courtesy of www.linear-photographs.com.

Quoted in a press release, Glenn Tan, the man behind the team said, “MIRT’s strong showing over the past three years is testament to the skill and hard work of our team, and a tribute to the rally heritage of the Subaru brand. We had a good run with the APRC and I am proud to say that our team has achieved what we set out to do – to make a lasting impression on Asia Pacific’s rally circuit.”

Having dominated series since it first entered in 2007, the decision is not surprising. Motorsport teams like close competition, and that is something Motor Image has not had.

Its three years in the series has, no doubt, enhanced the image of Motor Image as an organisation that can supply rally winning cars.

But what of the key components of the APRC’s most sucessful team?

Possum Bourne Motorsport, the team behind the team, will continue on. It was their expertise that built and developed the latest-spec WRX STi Impreza that dominated the series last year.

Although no longer the driving force behind Bourne’s stellar motorsport career, they have developed into one of the most professional and successful Production rally outfits in the world.

Emma Gilmore, who snared the runners-up laurels in the series last year, announced her international ability with a string of cleverly calculated drives. And driving through the pain of a broken wrist at Rally China to sneak past Katsu Taguchi for second place in the series, only helped to evalate her reputation as a professional rally driver.

She started 2009 as a Kiwi privateer with potential. By the end of the season she had clearly marked herself as a driver with not only with skills and talent, but the smarts to know when to push, when to be cautious, and how to make the most of her rivals misfortunes.

In fact, the only loser from the decision could be the four-time champion himself.

Since 1998, the fortunes of Cody Crocker and Possum Bourne Motorsport have been inextricably linked. And with the death of Possum Bourne in 2003, Crocker stepped up become the teams lead driver.

During that time, the partnership has produced 11 championships. PBMS provided cars with the potential to win titles; Crocker turned that potential into a reality.

But the one thing Cody Crocker has never been is a driver who pays for drives. His career has been built on his results and his reputation. And that means 2010 could, potentially, see him out of a drive.

That prospect last faced him at the end of 2006. Having just won his first APRC title in a Les Walkden Subaru, and having completed a contract with Subaru Australia, he was out of work. But the last-minute entry of Motor Image onto the APRC stage ensured he had another season in the championship, as as history shows, another three championships to win.

It seems unlikely he’ll find a seat in his national series in Australia, which has struggled since Subaru pulled out its factory team at the end of 2005. The Chinese series is always looking for the best Group N drivers, but Crocker’s FIA seeding makes him ineliglible. And cost of stepping into the PWRC has always been a little beyond his reach.

Whether another team will step into the APRC spotlight for 2010 and provide Crocker with the opportunity to showcase his incredible skills, we’ll have to wait and see.

The one that is for sure, Cody Crocker has set a standard in the APRC that will be very hard for those who follow to eclipse.

Even with funding hard to find, the Englishman is determined to contest the series this year. “It is still our aim to do the cup this year”, he told APRC Live this week. “But we are still very much in the fund raising process, so we do not know anything for sure yet”.

Higgins has had great success in the Chinese Rally Championship in recent years, and first revealed his intention to compete for the Asia Cup via his web site. “The Asia Cup…already includes the Longyou Rally which we do as part of the Chinese series, so I am looking into finding the funds to contest events in Malaysia, Indonesia or Japan so we can go for the Cup”.

“It’s always very competitive on the events in China,” said Higgins. “But when the APRC drivers join in the fray, it gets even more competitive. We have always had great success on those events, mainly battling with multiple APRC champion Cody Crocker who we have beaten in the past, so it makes sense to build on that with the Asia Cup.”

Photos courtesy of www.plopcrew.net and www.davidhigginsrally.com.

Finland’s Anton Alen and Matti Rantanen and Belgian Francois Duval drove the Neo S2000 at the Sweet Lamb test facility in Wales. Chris Mellors, who runs MEM, the outfit that built the car, said: “We had three great drivers who gave us some very positive and valuable feedback. From our point of view one of the most encouraging things is that we put the equivalent of a world championship rally distance on the car without having to do any work to it.”

Alen, who is considering Proton as one of his options for next season’s IRC, said: “The car felt very stable and the engine had a really good spread of torque right from the bottom all the way to the top.”

Source: paultan.org, photos by kyn_chung.

McRae, who now lives in Perth Western Australia, made a triumphal return to his native Perth shire in Scotland to pilot the rapidly improving Satria Neo to its best result so far.

Scottish hero McRae reveled in his appearance on the Rally of Scotland, just seven days after almost capturing a podium on the Rally of China in a similar Satria Neo S2000.

McRae, a former British and Asia-Pacific champion, was delighted with the Mellors Elliott Motorsport Proton Satria Neo S2000 and says he now the wants to do more rallies in the car in 2010.

The Satria Neo S2000 only homologated in October 2008 and made its debut on the IRC in June at the Belgium Ypres Rally and the all-new car has quickly shown its potential.

Team principal Chris Mellors has confirmed that a full IRC campaign alongside an attack on the Asia Pacific series is already in preparation for 2010.

“We’re looking at a four-car program for 2010 – two in the IRC and two in the FIA Asia-Pacific Championship,” he said.

“Alister has driven for us in the Asia-Pacific series this year and until this weekend that was what we were planning for 2010 as well, but I know he’s enjoying this weekend a great deal so it could be interesting sorting that out.”

McRae himself was in typically ebullient form all weekend, and was delighted to record Proton’s first podium finish in the IRC.

“The Proton chassis is one of the best I have ever driven”.

“Yes we’re doing the full IRC next year. We are looking forward to coming back and fighting these guys again,” Alister said.

“Kris Meeke (rally winner) has christened me ‘old safe hands’ but I can assure you these old hands were working far quicker than the brain!” McRae added.

McRae’s proud father, five-times British rally champion, Jimmy McRae, was working with the organisers of the inaugural Rally of Scotland and took great pride in his son’s return from Australia- joking: “He’s still a McRae!”

The two-litre Proton Super 2000 engine is derived from the 1.8 litre engine fitted to the Waja model and has been further developed by MEM’s engineers to produce a reliable 210kW @ 7600rpm (278 horsepower) with a usable power band from 5,500 to 8,500rpm.

The Satria Neo S2000 uses the six-speed sequential Xtrac 4WD transmission system, one of two control transmission systems allowed under FIA rules.

The car is also fitted with an innovative quick-change fuel control cassette which includes all the fuel pumps, filters and valves, attached to the MEM-designed FIA FT3 safety fuel cell to aid rapid maintenance.

Alcon provides the braking power with the latest Super 2000 alloy 4-pot calipers and ventilated discs which when combined with the Neo’s low overall weight of 1150kg gives outstanding brake performance.

The ventilated disc sizes can be maximised for both gravel when the car uses 15 inch rims and tarmac when it steps up to 18 inch rims, however for both simplicity and cost the brake calipers are common to both setups thanks to a simple mounting arrangement.

MEM’s engineers have designed the suspension with a relatively conventional layout of wishbone and MacPherson strut making it easy and relatively cheap to maintain while delivering extremely high reliability.

The suspension design has also maximised damper travel achieving both an ultra-low tarmac setup with low levels of body roll and a long-travel gravel setup with enormous ability to soak up the biggest bumps.

A variety of anti-roll bars are also available for both front and rear ensuring the suspension setup can be easily fine-tuned for any rally surface or type.

The latest technology is used in the electrical systems with a state-of-the-art multiplexed wiring system capable of managing the entire car’s electronics from a central unit situated in the centre of the car between the driver and co-driver. Apart from the weight saving reduction that this achieves it is simple to operate and boasts automatically resetting circuit breakers for improved reliability.

The result is a car which not only has well-proven technical advances and novel design but also simplicity to ensure the best possible combination of performance and reliability.

Story courtesy of www.aprc.tv, photos courtesy of www.plopcrew.net.

While Crocker made it siz wins from six events this year, his team-mate Emma Gilmore battled through the pain of a broken hand to move ahead of Katsu Taguchi in the championship points to give MotorImage their first 1-2 in the series and ensure Subaru won the manufacturers title.

The podium places were claimed by Rifat Singkar and Yuya Sumiyama, while higher profile drives like Katsu Taguchi, Gaurav Gill and Hiroshi Yanagisawa all failed on the rough and dangerous mountain roads.

In our final podcast of 2009, we catch up to Crocker, Gilmore, Sungkar and the rest of the field at the end of a long and tough rally. Have a listen to the show; just press the ‘Play’ button here, or download it from iTunes.

Photos courtesy of plopcrew.net.

As was the case in 2008, the Longyou event extracted a heavy toll of retirements. First to go was Finn Juha Salo who retired on stage two, then Jari Ketomaa punctured and lost time on stage three. Both Jussi Valimaki and Hiroshi Yanagisawa stopped on stage four, Valimaki with electrical problems and Yanagisawa with a damaged oil cooler.

Next to go was Gaurav Gill, who struck engine problems on stage five, while his team mate Katsu Taguchi pulled out on stage nine with a bent lower control arm.

Alister McRae was back in the Proton S2000, and had finished Saturday in fourth outright. But Sunday was not so kind, the APRCs only Super 2000 car suffering mechanical damage on SS13.

Taguchi’s retirement was particularly important, as that opened the door for Emma Gilmore to overtake the Japanese driver on the championship points table. And although she suffered a broken hand during Sundays stages (as the result of the steering wheel hitting her as the car ran over a large rut), she eased her Subaru to the finish for another MotorImage ‘1-2′ and claim a series second place in her debut year.

Behind Crocker, CRC regulars Dean Herridge and Jari Ketomaa claimed the other outright podium positions, with Gilmore and Rifat Sungkar taking second and third places for the APRC field.

Make sure you check back here at aprclive.com; the podcast will be available for download in a few days time.

China Rally – Final Results (Unofficial)

1. Cody Crocker/Ben Atkinson (AUS) Subaru Impreza 3:40.47,6
2. Dean Herridge/Chris Murphy (AUS) Subaru Impreza +4.32,8
3. Jari Ketomaa/Miika Teiskonen (FIN) Subaru Impreza +6.56,6
4. Rifat Sungkar/Scott Beckwith (RI/AUS) Mitsubishi Lancer +13.55,7
5. Yuya Sumiyama/Naoki Kase (J) Mitsubishi Lancer +17.17,9
6. Emma Gilmour/Claire Mole (NZ/GB) Subaru Impreza +17.58,0
7. Xu Jun/Liu Sheng (RC) Mitsubishi Lancer +21.46,3
8. Han Han/Sun Qiang (RC) Subaru Impreza +23.11,3
9. Fan Fan/Fang Junwei (RC) Mitsubishi Lancer +33.51,5
10. Shi Chunlei/Pan Hongyou (RC) Mitsubishi Lancer +43.14,4

Photos courtesy of Brian Young – www.apsm.tv

Katsu Taguchi has fought hard all year to stem the tide, but the Motor Image Subaru Impreza is now just too fast for the Taguchi’s older Mitsubishi Evo 9.

Emma Gilmore battled hard to claim the final podium position, in a rally that mixed heat, dust, rain and mud. But Alister McRae, Gaurav Gill, Hiroshi Yanagisawa, Yuya Sumiyama and Rifat Sungkar all had bad-luck stories to tell at the end of two torturous days.

In this podcast, we talk to Crocker, Taguchi and rest of the field about an event that provided plenty of action and excitement. Have a listen to the show; just press the ‘Play’ button here, or download it from iTunes.

Photos courtesy of Linear Photographs and www.rallyindonesia.com.

After securing three bonus points on Saturday Crocker and Atkinson needed just two more points to claim a fourth successive APRC title. “It’s an incredible feeling to win four APRC titles, and it makes all the effort that Ben, the team and I have put in this year worthwhile. I couldn’t be happier”, a delighted Crocker commented at the end of the event. “Having to only score five points in Indonesia to win the championship seemed like an easy task, but to drive at a sensible pace and retain your concentration over the tough and demanding Indonesian stages wasn’t as simple as it sounded”.

Second place was taken by Katsu Taguchi, the MRF driver fighting for the win over the two days, but ultimately not able to match the pace of the Motor Image Subarus during the Saturdays eight stages.

Showing the reliability she has brought to the Motor Image team this year, Emma Gilmore collected the final podium position meaning she how has a chance of overtaking Taguchi on the points table at next months Rally China.

Full coverage of Rally Indonesia will be available on the next APRC Live podcast, ready for download in a few days time at www.aprclive.com.

Final Results (Unofficial) – Rally Indonesia 2009

1. Cody Crocker / Ben Atkinson, Subaru Impreza, 3:17:7.5
2. Katsu Taguchi / Mark Stacey, Mitsubishi Evo IX, 3:18:36.5
3. Emma Gilmour / Claire Mole, Subaru Impreza, 3:27:9.4
4. Subhan Aksa / Hade Mboi, Mitsubishi Evo IX, 3:28: 42.5
5. Sadikin Aksa / Adi Wibowo, Mitsubishi Evo X, 3:38:19.0

Championship Points (Unofficial)

1 . Cody Crocker, 78 points
2. Katsu Taguch, 47 points
3. Emma Gilmore, 41 points
4. Gaurav Gill, 12 points
5. Brian Green, 9 points

Photos courtesy of Linear Photographs.