ONN LEADS AS SINGH STRUGGLES

29 March 2008, Bahau, Negeri Sembilan: The first day of the 2008 Malaysian Rally Championship ended with reigning champion, Karamjit Singh chasing race leaders in an unfamiliar and outclassed rented two-wheel drive Proton Satria 1.6.

The bureaucratic delay that left his familiar Mitsubishi Evo 8 stuck in port has clearly cost the Flying Sikh his chance of starting the year with an outright win.

“The thing that really slowed me down is the poor braking performance of the car. The pedals are spongy and lacked feel and I lost a lot of time from early braking,” said Karamjit.

Racing in a rented car that came with no spares forced him to take a more conservative approach. “We have to be careful not to damage the car otherwise we would not be able to even finish the race. The best I can hope for the first round is to finish in the top five and score some valuable points,” said Malaysia’s top rally driver.

He was not the only one to take the cautious approach. Even those who came prepared with ample stock of spares echoed his opinion because the stages in Bahau are quite rough and unforgiving.

The heavy overnight downpour deepened some ruts while standing water masked some of the other severe surface irregularities.

As Karamjit struggled to clock good times, Team Perodua M5’s Lim Leong Onn established himself as the man to beat and led team Pennzoil’s Gunaseelan Rajoo by a comfortable margin early in the first day and maintained his pace to hold on to his top position on the timesheet.

Although the Team Perodua M5 confirmed their participation at the eleventh hour and did no off-season development and testing work, it was clear that Lim’s 4Wd Viva Turbo and the two Myvi they campaigned last year are still competitive.

Karamjit was not the only driver to switch cars. Gunaseelan Rajoo chose not to attack the stages in their two-wheel drive Gen.2 but instead prepared an older car from their stable, a 4WD Proton Putra coupe. The decision paid off.

“The fact is, we had little chance of grabbing an overall win with a two wheel drive car so we took the risk of campaigning an older machine in the hope that the extra traction of the all wheel drive system will give us an edge,” he said.

Among the privateers, Sutan Mustafa is in form, consistently clocking top five times throughout the day. Unfortunately an unaccountably poor showing in SS1 left him with the mammoth task of clawing back a three-minute deficit.

MRU Motorsport’s Muhammad Rafiq Udhaya who is the only competitor to campaign a showroom car in the P10 Class, continued to demonstrate the durability of the Proton Satria Neo in Bahau.

While he never scorched the clock, Rafiq kept his nose out of trouble and claimed third spot in his class. The Satria Neo is also the only car competing in the showroom category which requires the car to remain stock apart from safety modification.

By day’s end the bumpy and twisty stages in Bahau claimed six cars in the first day and among the unlucky was championship hopeful James Russell who suffered engine seizure just 500 metres from the first start gate.

Father and team manager, Paul Russell said they are unsure why the engine gave up so suddenly.

“A few days ago we had to replace a set of pulleys after the motor shattered them but we had replaced them. Still it is very unusual for an engine to damage pulleys unless it had developed some kind mechanical problems,” he shrugged.

Next to fall was the only woman driver, Kancana Nanda Kumar of Team Pennzoil who damaged her steering and rear suspension in the opening stage. Although shaken and lightly bruised Kancana is determined to continue on the second day if the damage can be repaired.

Meanwhile privateer Amir Ahmad’s driving left his Proton Satria against a tree in SS2 and unable to continue. The team will assess if the car can be patched up for day two.

Twenty cars started the first round of the season which was flagged off by YB Mohd. Razi Bin Kail, Negeri Sembilan Tourism Exco and YM Tunku Datuk Mudzaffar Tunku Mustapha, Chairman, Automobile Association of Malaysia at Kompleks Feldajaya Selatan, Jempol.

The MRC is organized and promoted by Wheel Sport Management Sdn Bhd and sanctioned by FIA and Automobile Association Malaysia (AAM).

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