There’s no doubting the all-new Mitsubishi Triton when it comes to tough terrain now. That’s because all Tritons entered at the 2023 Asia Cross Country Rally finished the race, and one of them bagged a third-place finish along the way.
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While Ralliart was, indeed, gunning for the overall win, third place isn’t bad at all for a pickup that was, quite literally, launched just a few weeks prior. The podium-finishing team comprised of Chayapon Yotha and co-driver Peerapong Sombutwong. The duo won the 2022 edition of the rally with the previous generation Triton.
The next Triton that finished was piloted by AXCR first-timers Katsuhiko Taguchi and co-driver Takahiro Yasui. The Japanese pair brought home their Triton in eighth place overall despite a few challenges along the way. They had to deal with a broken-down competitor who ended up blocking the road and the dense jungle routes.
Rifat Sungkar and co-driver Chupong Chaiwan had several battles in the third Triton. They lost a lot of time in SS1 on the first day due to cooling system troubles caused by the front grille being covered by tall weeds and was given an 8-hour penalty. Even though they were at the back of the pack, the pair did their best to mount a charge and finished 32nd overall.
Even though Ralliart didn’t clinch back-to-back titles, they rewarded the Team Award as all their vehicles completed the rally.
"Unfortunately, we did not win the championship for the second year in a row, but we were able to complete the rally with all three Tritons without losing a single car, using almost the same specifications as mass-produced cars and using parts from production cars, which convinced us that our direction in car manufacturing was on the right track. We were also able to gain technical feedback that we should reflect on production vehicles, as well as issues on how to improve the competitiveness of our rally cars, making this a very meaningful event.” said Hiroshi Masuoka, team director of Team Mitsubishi Ralliart.
