Cody Crocker, the three-time Australian Rally Champion, has dominated proceedings on the opening day of the Subaru Rally of Canberra, establishing an 48.3 second lead over fellow Subaru driver, Dean Herridge after eight competitive stages in the forests around the nation’s capital.

Having left the Australian Championship to pursue his international ambitions in the Asia Pacific Championship with Les Walkden Rallying, Crocker immediately showed his class in the season’s opening round and demonstrated that he will be a force to be reckoned with in 2006.

Crocker, joined by new co-driver Ben Atkinson, started the day brilliantly winning the opening two special stages in his 2006 Spec C Impreza WRX STI before returning for the first service with a lead of 8.6 seconds from Herridge with Finn Jarkko Miettinen third, 12.1 seconds off the pace.

In the next group of three stages, Crocker was again fastest on two, only beaten on Special Stage 4 when the Finn took the honours. Crocker had hit a rock on the stage and felt the car was a “bit tailly on right hand bends” so nursed the car a little. But despite that glitch, the Victorian driver had extended his lead to 25.7 seconds from Herridge, with Miettinen just another 1.2 seconds behind the West Australian.

The final group of stages was a repeat of the previous three, and the road was considerably more cut-up than the earlier passing. Canberra, renowned as one of the toughest events in the Asia-Pacific Championship, has presented even rougher and drier roads than normal after another long dry spell in the region.

Miettinen was forced to withdraw when his Mitsubishi experienced mechanical problems but Crocker and Herridge pushed on. Crocker won all three stages making it seven from eight stage wins for the day.

Eli Evans, making his debut for Les Walkden Rallying, was also impressive, finishing the day in 4th place outright, and third among the registered competitors for the Asia-Pacific Championship.

Crocker, the reigning Subaru Rally of Canberra titleholder, was delighted that his title defence was off to such a strong start.

“Obviously this is a very important event for me, with a new team, a new co-driver and a new championship,” Crocker said.

“There is still tomorrow to go, but today went really well and it gives me a lot of confidence going forward.”

“The car, for its first event, was really very good, but I know we can make further refinements as we move through the season.”

“What was really pleasing was that Ben (Atkinson) and I worked really well together. It takes a while to get the timing of the calls spot on, but he clearly did a great job and we can only get stronger as a combination from here.”

Subaru Rally of Canberra – Provisional results – Leg One, Saturday March 11, 2006

1 CROCKER, Cody (AUS), ATKINSON, Ben (AUS) Subaru Impreza WRX (N4) 1:16:22.0
2 HERRIDGE, Dean (AUS), HAYES, Bill (AUS) Subaru Impreza WRX (N4) 1:17:10.3
3 TAGUCHI, Katsuhiko (J), STACEY, Mark (AUS) Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VIII (N4) 1:17:32.0
4 EVANS, Eli (AUS), McADAM, Matt (AUS) Subaru Impreza WRX (N4) 1:19:21.8
5 YANAGISAWA , Hiroshi (J), MISAIZU, Tadashi (J), Subaru Impreza WRX  (N4) 1:19:53.7
6 HILLS, David (AUS), CALLAGHAN, David (AUS) Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VII (N4) 1:20:03.1
7 SUNGKAR, Rifat (RI), HERKUSUMA, M. (RI) Mitsubishi Lancer EVO VIII (N4) 1:23:31.3
8 MASUMURA, Atsushi (J), YAYANAGI, Seiichiro (J) Mitsubishi CT9A (N4) 1:25:17.2
9 STEVENS, Denis (AUS), STEVENS, Amy (AUS) Subaru Impreza WRX (N4) 1:30:15.7