Team Mitsubishi Ralliart leads after four legs in the Asia Cross Country Rally 2024
It was the longest day of the whole competition, so far. From Leg 3’s fast course on the flat dirt around Hua Hin in Thailand, Leg 4, meantime, covered 170 km of undulating track through the mountainous terrain of Kanchanaburi.
After four grueling legs, Team Mitsubishi Ralliart #103 of Chayapon Yotha and Peerapong Sombutwong now finds itself leading the overall standings.
In Leg 4 alone, it proved to be an intense neck and neck battle between this Mitsubishi Team and Toyota Gazoo Racing Thailand Hilux’s Thais Mana Pornsiricherd and Kittisak Klinchan with the latter edging the duel by only five seconds. Nonetheless, Team Mitsubishi still came up on top as cumulative times for each leg were added, which, as a result, gave them the overall fastest time of 8:51:41. Mana’s Toyota team, meanwhile, came in second with 9:15:38 and Isuzu Suphan Explorer Liqui Moly Rally Team tandem of Suwat Limjirapinya and Prakob Chaothale finished in third with 9:21:44.
Second-stringer, Team Mitsubishi Ralliart of Katsuhiko Taguchi and Takahiro Yasui both from Japan, on the other hand, clinched fifth place with a time of 9:31:47 to cap Leg 4.
For the past three legs, Chayapon’s Mitsubishi team was meticulously consistent all throughout, particularly, getting the upper hand against its Toyota foes from Thailand in Leg 2 which the former edged them by as much as 27 minutes. This, thus, gave them the supremacy leading to these final crucial stages.
Here, as predicted from the start, the fierce three-way battle between the Triton, Hilux, and D-Max has become even more intense as they head to Legs 5 and 6. Hence, at this point, anything can happen.
The 29th edition of the AXCR consists of 67 competition cars and 230 vehicles overall, including service cars, service trucks, and media cars. There are nearly 600 entries coming from 10 different countries, such as: India, Indonesia, Australia, Cambodia, Singapore, Thailand, Taiwan, Japan, Vietnam and Malaysia.
Pickup trucks, the go-to vehicles in off-road racing in Thailand, dominated the four-wheel segment of the competitions, with 13 Toyota Hiluxes, 12 Isuzu D-Maxes, 5 Mitsubishi Tritons, 2 Ford Raptors, and 2 Toyota Tacomas, making up three quarters of all rally vehicles.
Moreover, four different Toyota Land Cruiser models participated in the rally: 80 Series, 150 Series Prado, 200 Series, and 300 Series. Also, three Suzuki Jimnys are being seen in the exciting dust and dirt action.
