Crocker, with co-driver Ben Atkinson, had a tough weekend in the heat and rugged roads of Indonesia, but the pair battled on to grab the necessary points to win the championship with one round to go.
The back-to-back title is a triumph for Crocker, and follows his domination of the Australian Championship from 2002 to 2005 when he won three straight national titles.
A puncture on day one ruined any chance of an eleventh straight outright title for the Victorian, but the fifth, combined with a second placing in heat two, added six championship points to his season’s tally.
After gathering a perfect score of 64 points from the first four rounds of the 2007 season, the six points were two more than he needed to secure the overall title for Subaru and his MotorImage team.
“After the flat tyre on SS5 yesterday we were out of contention for the Indonesian title, so the focus became getting through the rally and securing the APRC title,” Crocker said.
“While we could be disappointed with fifth here, the real story for us and the team is a second straight championship.”
“We’ve had an incredible run, ten straight event wins, that run was never going to go on for ever in a sport like this.”
“But for us to add two APRCs to three ARCs across five years is just incredible.”
“Full credit to the team. We were in many ways a new combination this year, running for MotorImage for the first time. But everything has gelled well. Ben has done a brilliant job again and we can now go to China and really enjoy the fact that we’ve achieved our goal the year.”
Rally China takes place from November 9 to 11.
Results – Rally Indonesia
1, Jussi Valimaki, 03:06:36.0
2, Katsuhiko Taguchi, 03:08:18.0
3, Hiroshi Yanagisawa, 3:09:21.0
4, Gaurav Gill, 3:11:00.0
5, Cody Crocker, 03:11:15.0
6, Rifat Sungkar, 03:13:15.0
7, Brian Green, 03:22:48.0
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