Interview: Cody Crocker - Rally Legend

[totalmotorcycle]

#Interview: Cody @Crocker - #Rally Legend

Cody Crocker is Australia's most successful driver currently on the Aussie rally circuit. He has 4 Asia Pacific Rally Championship titles, 3 Australian Rally Championship titles to his name and 4 Australian titles in the SxS Challenge class. Not only is he a great champion, he is one of rally's good guys, easy to talk to and always willing to share his time. We sat down with Cody to discuss his career and his latest title win.

Congratulations Cody on this your fourth title for Polaris in a row in the SxS category of the Australian Rally Championship. It's an admirable record, did you find this year any easier than in past years?

"Thanks, every year is a huge challenge and every year seems harder than the previous. This year we've worked just as hard as in previous years and the pace of Michael Guest, Nathan Chivers and of course our own team mate Iain Hughes just keeps increasing, so we've had to find improvements in ourselves and our Polaris RZR. We had a great testing period at the start of this year which really helped set us up for a strong year".

Would you say it was a title achieved through pace or stamina?

"Always a bit of both, most important is stamina - being there at the end is critical, but being able to apply pressure by being fast on every single stage is also important. I think that's been our trademark since the beginning of my career".

At the first round, your competitors started by pushing you down in the positions. What changed and what do you think was the turning point?

"We had done pre-season testing, got our suspension and setup sorted and were in the best position to start this year. No-one would know how we would compare to the Can-Ams until that first stage. The turbo Maverick was always going to be fast and we were around 1 second per km slower than Michael Guest - a big gap in rallying and we did wonder just how we were going to beat the Can-Ams. As mentioned earlier outright pace is one thing but reliability and continued pressure are equally important. We kept the pressure on and the chinks in the armour began to show. Guesty broke an exhaust in the middle of that first heat in Canberra and we took a solid 30 second lead, once he repaired it he was forced to push to the maximum and broke a belt which put him out of contention. Looking back this was really the point where our pace and stamina approach began to pay off. We continued that relentless charge all season and once again consistent speed and reliability won the championship for us".

Your vehicle is Polaris RZR XP 1000 designed more for off-road driving and racing. Some people mutter that this type of vehicle doesn't belong in ARC, what do you think?

"The traditionalists will say this, we went through the same thing when 4WD cars became dominant in rallying, some people are simply opposed to change. The ARC has struggled along for many years and needs to be open to new categories. In my opinion the ARC must have manufacturer involvement. It is the pinnacle of the sport in Australia, to have two big vehicle manufacturers involved in just one category is something that cannot be overlooked and should be nurtured. So my response to this is to mutter back that at least the ARC has two manufacturers involved, how about we find more".

How do they compare to the Subaru rally cars you drove back in the early 2000's

"I've always said that the RZR is a scaled down version of a world rally car, we have more suspension travel than the WRC cars, but perhaps just a bit less power! There are obvious differences between the vehicles but my fundamental driving style is the same. We've worked hard to make the suspension behave the same as my previous rally cars, to the point where my co-driver Greg Foletta (suspension engineer is one of his numerous roles) has evaluated our RZR's suspension and the damping rates are actually mid way between our Subaru rally cars and the current world rally cars. This makes it very good to drive. I'm always wanting more power - which I'm excited to hear will be coming in our next model!".

How important is the ability of your co-driver?

Extremely important but don't tell Greg. He has to be multi faceted and very organised because I'm not. They also need to be mechanically capable - working out how to keep a car going when a wheel falls off is something the co-driver becomes involved in even if they had nothing to do with making the wheel fall off - applying bush mechanics is something Greg is very good at. They also need to be a good fall guy, because they will be blamed for that wheel falling off. They also need to be the good secretary, getting coffee when needed etc, although Greg's no good at this because he doesn't drink coffee".

Did you race in any other categories during 2015? Tell us a bit about that.

We did the Finke Desert Race in June, a 225km track (very loosely termed) between Alice Springs and the Finke township. I'm very lucky to be part of a manufacturer team like Polaris because it means I get to compete in so many fantastic events that would ordinarily be out of my reach. As mentioned earlier, Greg somehow made a wheel fall off about 20kms from Finke but then redeemed himself by applying his bush mechanic skills to get to the finish. We lost the wheel studs in the incident so had to take 2 from the other side, then remove and zip tie the broken brake caliper to the rear arm and zip tie the brake rotor to the inside of the wheel to stop it doing more damage. It all worked and we made it to Finke. We were then fastest on the way home back to Alice which made the event more memorable, for those who haven't attempted Finke, it's like nothing else out there, there are things called whoops which are essentially giant corrugations, some are nearly one metre high. On average there are 100 whoops per km in sections, it's a tough event".

Polaris has their new RZR XP Turbo coming early next year as an addition to their range. What are your thoughts on that?

That's right, the RZR XP 1000 as we had this year continues on but I'm super excited about the new Turbo and there has been loads of hype. I just can't wait to get into one and see what 144HP with that Turbo grunt can do. Again, being part of a manufacturer means I get to drive it during the various launch activities. My smile has been getting bigger every year that we're launched a new RZR and this year will be the biggest. I've watched all the videos and spoken to everyone who knows about the new model, it's almost completely redesigned and has 40% more power, that's the biggest increase since RZR was launched back in 2008, exciting is an understatement!

What are your plans for 2016?

"This is one of the most asked questions of 2015! At the moment I don't know, but we are in the process of working this out and the team at Polaris are weighing up the series options. Our plan for this year was always to focus on the ARC and then look at next year. So it's great to sit back and tick the ARC box, now it's time to plan for next year. There are plenty of options, the ARC is a fantastic competition and great showcase for Polaris. There are also many other off road and stadium type events that I'd love to do, so I'm hoping we can ramp up the schedule and go and do lots more in 2016.

What is your favourite colour?

"Silver, like my RZR".

What is your favourite boy band?

"Ok, that's just going too far".

An enlightening chat with Cody, a great champion. The Polaris RZR has been unbeatable this year in the ARC and has Polaris has led the way in reinventing and developing off-road sport. In 2015 they kicked off the Polaris RZR Australian Championship putting identical vehicles wheel-to-wheel around MotoX tracks throughout Victoria and NSW and it is set to return in 2016.