Karamjit takes MRC title with one round to go
18/11/2008

18th November, 2008 - Karamjit Singh, Malaysia’s rallying legend, has won the 2008 season of the Malaysian Rally Championship (MRC), even though the sixth and last Round is still to be held this weekend (22&23 November).

Karamjit secured his tenth consecutive MRC win when he clocked up the two points he needed to clinch the Championship and the P12 Category trophy during the fifth Round in Johor in October.

The battle for second place is now on between Perodua M5 Racing Team’s Lim Leong Onn and GSR Pennzoil Racing Team’s Gunaseelan Rajoo. Lim sits on 29 points, Gunaseelan on 36. Gunaseelan has a new co-driver as his regular co-driver, brother Jayaselan, has other commitments. Mano Menon takes the hot seat. This is the first time the two have competed together and they’ll be working hard to finish strong.

“Now that Karamjit has secured the overall Championship and we have the Team trophy in the bag, I can push hard this weekend to maintain my lead over Lim and finish second overall,” said Gunaseelan. “Until now I have been cautious, just wanting to finish every race and clocking up points, but we have made some adjustments to the car and now we’re ready to go to battle!”

A thrilling race is expected this weekend in the slippery palm-oil plantations of Ladang KLIA Sepang. Over 20 cars will compete to finish 20 Stages in the fastest time, with 12 Stages in Leg One on Saturday and 8 Stages in Leg Two on Sunday. The total distance is 94.56km with the longest Stage being 9.23km and the shortest stage being 2.35 km.

The Organisers, Wheel Sport Management Sdn Bhd (WSM) a member of the Ancom Group, decided to hold the rally in Selangor to make it accessible to the public and to ease the financial burden of the competitors.

“Coming into the sixth Round so late in the year, many competitors have limited budgets so we have removed the financial burden of accommodation and outstation travel for them,” said Tengku Shaharin Abu Bakar Almarhum Tengku Suleiman, Director of WSM and Clerk of the Course. ”By staging the MRC in Sepang we are also making the rally more accessible to spectators who will be able to watch the action from the roadside.”

The official flag-off will be held on Friday night (21 Nov), 7.30pm at Jaya One, Jalan Universiti, Petaling Jaya and the 2008 Champions will be crowned at 5pm Sunday afternoon at the same venue.

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