Team Mitsubishi Ralliart's Triton takes first place at the Asia Cross Country Rally 2022 on its first attempt!

After a three-year break due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the Asia Cross Country Rally (AXCR) returned for 2022, with the event kicking off on November 21 in Buriram in the northeastern part of Thailand before ending near Angkor Wat in Siem Reap, Cambodia on November 26.

The AXCR 2022 is significant as it marks the competitive return of Team Mitsubishi Ralliart to the world of rallying after an absence of 11 years. The comeback was a sweet one, as Chayapon Yotha from Thailand, driving the #105 Triton, finished in first place overall. Yotha piloted one of three Triton Rally Cars competing in the event, with the others being fellow compatriot Sakchai Hantrakul and Rifat Sungkar from Indonesia.

Over a total distance of 1,524 km, including 637 km of timed special stages (SS), Yotha took the top spot with a time of 8 hours 22 minutes and 42 seconds, which is 5 minutes 47 seconds ahead of the Toyota Hilux Revo driven by Jaras Jaengkamolkulchai (Toyota Cross Country Team Thailand) in second place.

Meanwhile, third place belonged to Japanese driver Ikuo Hanawa driving a Toyota Fortuner who was only five seconds behind Jaengkamolkulchai. Following him was Takuma Aoki – also in a Fortuner – with a time of eight hours 38 minutes and 26 seconds.

As for fifth place, it belonged to Rifat Sungkar with a time of eight hours 39 minutes and 56 seconds in the #118 Triton, while sixth spot in the Auto category belonged to Tawee Neanna with a time of eight hours 51 minutes and 24 seconds.

The first half of the rally in Thailand consisted mainly of high-speed stages on rough, dry unpaved roads, while the second half in Cambodia posed more of a challenge to teams due to heavy rain that resulted in the formation of large, deep puddles on muddy roads.

On his path to victory, Yotha finished fifth in SS1 on the first day, while on the second day, he set the fastest time in SS2, the longest SS of this year’s AXCR with a 203 km course and climbed to the top overall position. From there, he piloted his Triton to finish SS3 in seventh, SS4 in sixth, SS5 in fifth, and SS6 in fifth, and he maintained the lead he had established in SS2 to take the overall win.

Rifat Sungkar’s rally started with a sixth-place finish in SS1, but his hope for higher positions was dashed after suffering a flat tyre and subsequent damages to the chassis in SS2, which dropped him to eighth position. The team’s repair work allowed him to continue the rally the next day, and he finished fourth in SS3, fifth in SS4, fourth in SS, and seventh in SS6, completing the rally in fifth overall. Team Mitsubishi Ralliart’s Hantrakul in the #119 Triton also faced an unfortunate circumstance when he had to retire from the rally after testing positive for Covid-19 after SS1.

“For this year’s AXCR, we built on the high reliability and durability of the Triton by tuning the engine and chassis and entered the rally with specifications relatively close to the production car. Even so, the two Triton rally cars delivered powerful driving, and I am very proud of our high finish,” said Hiroshi Masuoka, team director of Team Mitsubishi Ralliart.

“The superb performance came down to the drivers, who were able to extract the Triton’s performance and show us some great drives, the engineers who worked every day to fine-tune the vehicles perfectly, all the staff who provided support, and the know-how that Mitsubishi Motors has accumulated over the years,” he added.

“Key to it all was the tremendous support from our sponsors and the passionate messages of support we received from fans around the world. We would like to feed the knowledge we gained through our participation in the AXCR back into the development of production vehicles, and build Mitsubishi vehicles that are even tougher, more powerful, and more reliable,” he ended.