Proton R3 Rally team’s Karamjit Singh driving a stock standard Proton Satria Neo produced the greatest upset of the championship when he won the rally by a healthy margin over Fan Fan and his mighty Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X. It was expected as Rallying on muddy surfaces requires a skill which only Karamjit Singh knows too well.
“We are happy to win this rally, especially we are driving a 1.6 front wheel drive and we’ve beaten much faster cars, so we are very happy with our performance,” Karamjit said.
Proton R3 Rally team Karamjit Singh and Kenneth Koh and a whole host of private entries made up the 20 entries for the event. China’s Wan Yu Rally Team, Fan Fan and co-driver Fang Jun Wei took second overall, while Muhammad Rafiq Udhaya and co-driver Maruthi Ariokiasamy of MRU Motorsports took third place.
HOW IT UNFOLDED
The mud soaked Angsana Super Special was the deciding point of the rally. Karamjit Singh was the fastest on the 2.25km stage and he continued setting fastest time on 5 of the 7 stages which made up leg 1 on Saturday. After 139km of competitive driving he built up a strong 1:47 seconds lead from Fan Fan. Among the drivers missing on leg 1 is Brian Green. Struggling to drive through the mud, he got stuck after sliding off the road, Penang’s Mohammad Rafizal whom stopped with engine failure and Amir Ahmad’s Proton Satria 4WD blew a rear diff. The local boys spent the day fixing their cars to start leg 2. Nothing seems to stop the local boys from competing in the rally. It passion which is keeping them in the sport.
6 stages and 80km awaits the competitors on leg 2. Fan Fan was on a mission to overhauls Karamjit Singh 1:47 seconds lead when he to 22 seconds on stage 9 and 10 but on stage 11 he lost a minute when he spun his Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X. He was really trying to win but he then conceded defeat when Karamjit Singh won the last two stages of the day. Fan Fan was left in confusion with his defeat to Karamjit Singh whom drove a stock Standard FWD car.
Muhammad Rafiq maintain his third place safe from Aji Kims Satria Neo and Mohd Sazly’s Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 6. It was Mohd Sazly’s second rally in a 4WD car and finishing in the top 5 is a sweet result for all the students in the Team. The next round of the Malaysian Rally Championship is schedule in a months’ time in the state of Negeri Sembilan. With a win each between Karamjit Singh and Fan Fan, the Championship can go either way.
To find out more of what and when of the rally, log in to the website http://www.malaysianrally.com.
