HEATED BATTLE EXPECTED AT RALLY IN KUANTAN THIS WEEKEND

New international entries in faster cars set to challenge Karamjit

25 June 2008, Kuantan: Malaysian Rally Champ Karamjit Singh is expecting that the new drivers entered in the third Round of the 2008 Malaysian Rally Championship (MRC) will challenge him for the top spot this weekend in Kuantan.

With his Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 8 in desperate need of an overhaul, the three-time Asia Pacific Rally champion and the first Asian P-WRC Champion said the international competitors from India and New Zealand could beat him, but for their lack of experience on Malaysian courses.

The Indian team’s Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 6 is faster and more agile and both Arjun Rao, the driver, and Musa Sheriff, the co-driver, are veterans and champions of the Indian National Rally Championship.

New Zealander, Mark Tapper in a Subaru Impreza is also expected to be fast as he has experience competing in Indonesia and Thailand and is the current NZ 2WD champion.

Both international teams are driving for the first time in the MRC in an effort to gain experience on Malaysian soil before the upcoming Asia Pacific Rally Championship (Malaysian Round) which will be held in Johor in October.

“We believe we can still win the third round,” said Karamjit, “but the fight for overall first place will be tougher than normal.”

Karamjit’s team manager and rally veteran Gunaseelan Rajoo of the GSR Pennzoil Racing Team is anticipating his team could take the podium as overall winners repeating their success in Round two in Perlis last month.

Guna and his brother and co-driver Jayaseelen, will compete for the first time in their new Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9.

Another change this Round is the Perodua M5 Racing Team’s decision to run two cars instead of three, said to be due to budget constraints.

P. Nandakumar has been dropped by Perodua and will now compete as a Privateer. Despite this setback, Nandakumar is confident he can do well driving his own Proton Satria which won 2nd overall in Round One when Karamjit hired and drove it and 5th overall in Round Two when it was driven by Jasbir Singh another Indian driver who competed last Round to gain experience on Malaysian soil.

Muhammad Siraj Abdullah is back on the track this weekend after a short absence driving Muhammad Rafiq Udhaya’s Proton Satria Neo. Interestingly, this is the same car Siraj managed to flip onto its roof in Kuantan in last year’s season.

The third Round of MRC 2008 season kicks off this weekend (28-29 June) in the Felda palm oil plantations in Felda Lepar Hilir 1. The race will see 25 cars taking part in seven categories, namely, A8, P9, P10, P11, P12, N4 and Clubman.

Clerk of the Course, Tengku Shaharin Abu Bakar Almarhum Tengku Suleiman said the course is currently dry and the weather very hot but there is rain forecast for the weekend ahead which could change the conditions considerably. “If we get a lot of rain the course could become quite slippery which would be a challenge for a lot of the rookies competing in the Clubman category,” Tengku Shaharin warned.

The participants will be flagged-off at 12 noon, Saturday 28 June at Sek. Keb. Felda Lepar Hilir 1. The prize giving ceremony will be held on Sunday at 5pm at the same venue and the public is invited to attend to get meet the drivers and check out the rally cars.

The public is also invited to come to the two-day free carnival which will be held will in conjunction with the rally at Sek. Keb. Felda Lepar Hilir 1. There will be lots of fun-filled family activities such as colouring competitions for the kids, karaoke, booth displays, and an Autokhana driving competition.

The public can log onto www.malaysianrally.com for more information.

The MRC is organized and promoted by Wheel Sport Management Sdn Bhd.

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