MOTOR Sport
Some silver lining
- By: WIWAT CHANG
- Published: 9/01/2009 at 12:00 AM
- Newspaper section: Motoring
The casualty list is still rising every week with an increasing number of teams quitting the field, even though this is off-season for motorsports.
Subaru to stay in APRC.
So far, the big casualties are Honda from F1, Subaru and Suzuki from WRC, Audi from ALMS and LMS, Chevrolet from Le Mans and Kawazaki from Moto GP.
But there is some good news too for 2009, even though they're few in number and relatively small in operation and reach.
In Asia, Singapore-based Motor Image Rally Team announced they're committed to continue running in the Asia-Pacific Rally Championship that they've won two years in a row since their debut.
Glenn Tan, the team's principal and CEO of Asean distributor of Subaru cars, said that the team will defend the title with new generation hatchback Group N Impreza STis.
What isn't so clear is whether the drivers' line-up would comprise of triple champion Australian Cody Crocker and Indonesian Rifat Sungkar.
Sungkar is the paying driver in the team, backed by Indonesia's state-owned oil company Pertamina.
There has not been a works team present in APRC for years, but we're lucky to have semi-privateer teams fighting the regional battle for the two long-time archrivals in the rallying world: Mitsubishi and Subaru.
There is one APRC team campaigning with Evo's and it's funded by Indian tyre maker MRF with considerable success _ winning the title in 2005 with Finnish driver Jussi Valimaki.
The other team running Subarus is Cusco, a Japanese after-market and motorsport tuner.
But given the state of global economy, is the business model still sound for them to spend no less than B30m a year?
Would an Indian tyre customer really care if the tyre he buys in Calcutta for his Tata is the same brand as the one on a winning rally car he only sees on TV?
Maybe and maybe not. You have to take into perspective the size of the Indian market and culture _ some customers could still be impressed by such larger-than-life motorsport pedigree.
For an after-market tuner, it makes perfect sense to boast that a tough motorsport series is used as the ultimate test bed for their products.
But then the Japanese are very careful when it comes to bracing for the impact of recession and disposable income to buy flashy ego-serving toys may be frozen for some time.
As for a regional car distributor whose annual sales are in the high thousands, a central marketing activity centred on rallying could just be the thing potential customers want to see now that the works team's presence in global motorsport is out of the picture.
- Safer roads, anyone?
- READERS' LETTERS
- Not your mom's tyre
- Downsizing invitation
- Two in a row
- Easing off the brakes a bit
- Finn eyes title
- Radical rubber?
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