CLASS VICTORY AND 4TH OVERALL FOR PROTON RALLY TEAM IN ROUND THREE...

CLASS VICTORY AND 4TH OVERALL FOR PROTON RALLY TEAM IN ROUND THREE OF THE MALAYSIAN RALLY CHAMPIONSH

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The PROTON Rally Team drove to its first victory of the season by taking a class win and finishing fourth overall in round three of the Malaysian Rally Championship that was held in Johor from August 19-20, 2006.

The two-day rally began with a ceremonial start at Danga Bay in Johor Baru and was also round five of the prestigious Asia Pacific Rally Championship that saw a total of 13 international and 24 local competitors battling it out in the sweltering heat with in-car temperatures recorded as high as 45 degrees Celcius.

Piloting a GEN.2 CAMPRO 1.6, driver Sutan Mustaffa and co-driver Gary Lee took top honours in Class P11 (1800cc) with a margin of almost 14 minutes ahead of second place class winner Kok Pak Chiang in a Proton Wira 1.8, with Mike Arokiasamy in another Proton Wira 1.8 a further three minutes adrift. There were a total of eight cars in the class.

The vehicle was race prepared by PROTON’s motorsport division R3 (Race, Rally & Research) while the engine was developed by it’s own R&D Powertrain division.

“We had a solid weekend with the car performing well and reliability at its best,” said co-driver Lee. “A lot of work had gone into refining the performance and in getting greater power from the 1.6 CAMPRO engine over the last two rounds and I’m happy that this paid off handsomely.”

The rally run in the vicinity of Sibol, Pasir Raja and Inas, covered a total of 227.5km of special stages with conditions being unpredictable with bright sunlight on some stages and rain on others making road conditions extremely treacherous and challenging.

“We entered this third round targeting for a commendable finish. To have eventually won it was a real bonus!” said a delighted Sutan who on the second day had a momentary scare when he was forced to nurse the car back into service with a damaged left rear arm.

“We were very lucky to have gotten back to the service area where the team mechanics and engineers performed emergency repairs to the car. I would like to dedicate this victory to the team, both those on the ground and at the factory, whose hard work and commitment, made this victory possible.”

Round Three of the Malaysian Rally Championship was won by veteran Karamjit Singh driving a Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution. In the APRC category, Australian Cody Crocker maintained a 2 minute 34 second lead over Jarko Miettinen from Finland with Mitsubishi’s Katsuhiko Taguchi in third place. A total of 10 from the 24 local competitors retired from the rally.


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