MRF Drivers Win Asia Pacific Rally Stage

Katsuhiko Taguchi and co-driver Mark Stacey of Team MRF Tyres recently won the New Caledonia round of the FIA Asia Pacific Rally Championship (APRC), which consisted of two super special stages and rough stages. Their Mitsubishi Lancer EVO VIII finished a remarkable six minutes and 26 seconds ahead of the second-placed Mitsubishi of Rifat Sungkar, from Indonesia.

Conditions were hot, humid and slippery and Taguchi paid tribute to his new-compound dirt tyres, developed by the MRF technical team for the 2006 season. “The grip was incredible. I felt very confident, even on sharp corners,” said Taguchi, who won the APRC title in 1999 and who now has a seven-point lead in this year’s standings.

Things were not so good for Team MRF’s second entry, when Finnish driver Jarko Miettinen – who was leading at the time – rolled his Mitsubishi and was forced to retire with a damaged engine.