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Profile - Cody Crocker

Background

Where it all began
With a motorsport-oriented family Cody received a balanced petrol-based diet with lashings of strong backup from his father's automotive engineering business. Cody’s father, Barrie Crocker had been involved in rallying since the early 70’s and became a successful rally driver in his own right. With so much exposure to conversations peppered with rally jargon and technicalities he became a hands-on at age 12.

The taste for rallying
Cody began his driving career in a Honda Z, flying around the property in Victoria – their long-dirt driveway begging for abuse. Opening up to hillclimbs, autocross, motorkhana’s and circuit racing he swayed competitively towards rallying in a 1976 Mitsubishi Lancer. Cody demonstrated potential from his first autocross win at 16. Ever since his chosen sport has been aptly nurtured.

Cody and co-driver Greg Foletta began rallying as a team in 1994 debuting in the Australian Rallysport News Junior Challenge, winning the Challenge that year, with Cody also being named the Victorian Novice Champion driver.

1995 Cody was runner up in the Victorian Rally Championship producing his best results of 5th outright and 1st Victorian crew home at the Rally of Melbourne. 1997 saw an incredulous year full of successes and a placing of 5th outright in the Australian Rally Championship.

The making of a champion
In 1998 Cody was offered his first drive with Subaru Australia in a Group N car serviced by Possum Bourne Motorsport. Cody was now part of Team Subaru and team mate to his mentor, the legendary Possum Bourne.

In his first year with Team Subaru, Cody, along with Possum won the manufacturer’s title for Subaru Australia in the Australian Rally Championship, and was crowned the Group N Australian Rally Drivers Champion.

In 1999 Cody won his first outright Australian Rally Championship event at the Rally of Melbourne in front of his home crowd. Cody also gained more International experience by competing in both Rally New Zealand and Rally Australia. On home soil he once again took out the Australian Rally Championship Group N title for the second consecutive year. After his achievements in 1998 and 1999 Cody was called up to drive the “double zero” car in the 555 Subaru Rally of China.

In 2000 Cody once again clinched his third consecutive Group N Australian Rally Championship title. 2001 witnessed Cody in his new 2001 Subaru Impreza WRX for Perth after an infamous violent flip + 5 1/2 rolls at Rally NZ. The 29 year old showed dominance in his class and pulled off his fourth consecutive Group N Australian Rally Championship win. The Australian Rally Championship Manufacturers title for Subaru was also theirs for keeps. 

2002 saw Cody and Possum along with new team mate Dean Herridge complete the new Subaru Rally Team Australia trio where Possum added an extra challenge in the Group N field. Possum took his 7th consecutive Australian Rally Championship title with Cody backing up the legend with second outright in the championship.

2003 proved to be a year of triumph and tragedy with the sudden loss of Possum Bourne, a shock to the rally community all over the world. However, in the face of adversity is when real triumphs occur, with Cody taking out his first outright Australian Rally Championship Drivers title.

He had achieved his first goal in rallying to become the Australian Rally Champion.

2004 proved another dominating year with Cody taking the Australian Rally Championship title home for the second consecutive year along with the Australian Manufacturers Championship.

The success continues
In 2005 Cody again succeeded in taking out the Australian Rally Championship title for the 3rd consecutive year. This win was one to remember for Subaru Rally Team Australia winning 10 straight Drivers Championship titles in the Australian Rally Championship and achieving eight from ten Manufacturers Championship titles, the last six in succession. Along with this success came the sad news that Subaru Rally Team Australia’s journey had ended, but not for Cody Crocker.

The champion driver continued his success in 2006 on a new level in a new championship.

2006 saw Cody join Les Walkden Rallying in partnership with Subaru Australia for competition in the FIA Asia Pacific Championship. Cody has again dominated rallying, winning the 2006 FIA Asia Pacific Rally Championship and contributing to Subaru’s victory in the Manufacturers Championship.

2007 - 2008, and the domination continues. Crocker and Atkinson clinch another 2 APRC Drivers titles along with the Manufacturers title for Subaru, destroying their rivals, winning the championship more than 2 rounds clear of Jussi Valimaki in second. 2008 was a titanic battle all the way, with Katsu Taguchi putting up a great fight for the championship. Hiroshi Yanagisawa was also a great rival and battle Cody and Ben for the Asia Cup. Crocker managed to clinch the Asia Cup by a mere 1.2 seconds in the last round in China.

2009 has been another great year with the pair continuing the MotorImage Rally Team domination of the APRC with new team mates Emma Gilmour and Rhianon Smyth. An unfortunate accident mid year for Rhianon saw Claire Mole step in to finish the season. Both contributed to a fantastic second place in the championship for Emma and a Motor Image one-two for the season.