Team Mitsubishi Ralliart is back in Thailand this week, fielding three Triton pickups at the Asia Cross-Country Rally (AXCR) 2026, an off-road event running August 9–15 from Pattaya to Phitsanulok.
The team is defending the overall title it won in 2025, when Thai driver Chayapon Yotha took Ralliart's second AXCR victory — his first came in 2022, the event that marked the team's return to rally competition after Mitsubishi revived the Ralliart brand in 2021. Also on the entry list this year: Katsuhiko Taguchi and co-driver Takahiro Yasui, who were the top-finishing Japanese crew in 2025.
Taguchi and Yasui were running third overall after Leg 2 on August 11, then set the rally's first stage-best time in Leg 3 on August 12 to grab the overall lead — by a slim eight seconds. They have since stretched that margin: after Leg 5 on August 14, Japanese reports put the pair ahead by five minutes and 21 seconds heading into the final leg. Chayapon Yotha, the reigning winner in the team's third Triton, has dropped down the order with engine trouble, and Kazuto Koide and Eiji Chiba sit 28th overall.
That leaves Mitsubishi in front but not clear of the fight — Toyota's and Isuzu's Thai entries have been trading stage wins, and cross-country rallies have a long history of turning on a single mechanical failure.
Update: The rally finished on August 15 and Taguchi and Yasui held on to win overall by 2 minutes 25 seconds. Full result: Taguchi's Triton Wins the 2026 Asia Cross-Country Rally as Mitsubishi's Defending Champion Falls Away.
The Ralliart name carries real weight for JDM fans: it's Mitsubishi's motorsport brand, long tied to the Lancer Evolution rally programme, revived in 2021 after roughly a decade of dormancy. One thing worth flagging for readers outside Japan: the Triton contesting AXCR isn't a JDM car in the usual sense — it's built in Thailand for export — but it isn't a stranger to Japan either. The current-generation Triton went back on sale in Japan in February 2024 after a 12-year gap, so this rally effort does connect to a model Japanese buyers can walk into a dealership and order.