SURPRISE FINISH SIXTH FOR NEWCOMER TO MALAYSIAN RALLY

29 June 2008, Kuantan, Pahang: With the top three drivers comfortably spaced by minutes and switching to conservation mode, most of the action in the third round of the Malaysian Rally Championship was in the midfield.

The biggest surprise of the day was clubman driver, Abdul Ghaffar Alias who doggedly worked his way up the timesheet to end up sixth overall in his Proton Satria.

He started the day in ninth place, chasing Clubman favourite Roduwan Rashid who was four seconds ahead.

Abdul Ghaffar and his navigator, Mohd Rafidi Wahiddudin pushed hard throughout the day and not only overtook Roduwan but also two other cars of Nik Ammar Mohamed and veteran Mike Arokiasamy.

“I am definitely surprised that we made up that much time, the goal for today is to get ahead of Roduan and stay there. Thankfully the car drive very well and I suppose it also helped that Kuantan is my favourite round and to top it all off, the track was just as like it, damp and slightly slippery,” Gaffar said.

“We did have an incident on SS13 when we grazed an embankment and almost spun the car. Lucky for us there was no serious mechanical damage and we continued on our way after a brief stop.”

Co-driver Mohd Rafidi was equally amazed by their good result; “We certainly thought we had a chance to overtake Roduwan because the time difference was small but Nik Ammar was 52 seconds ahead at the start of the second day. We wanted to clock better times that Nik Ammar but we didn’t really think we could catch up. This is a pleasant surprise,” he beamed.

Arokiasamy had a poor showing in the second day and fell from the sixth to the ninth rung while Roduwan dropped from eight to tenth. Nik Ammar kept his pace but he was no match for Abdul Ghaffar’s inspired driving.

Being sixth overall also gave Abdul Ghaffar the clubman trophy and put him in second place in the P10 category behind top privateer, Sutan Mustafa Salihin.

Sutan Mustafa pushed hard on the second day to deny former Perodua M5 driver, P Nandakumar from getting fourth place and in the end Sutan’s trademark red Proton Satria crossed the final SS in less time than Nandakumar who suffered from a 1 minute 40 second penalty.

Both drivers drove well throughout the weekend and were in a position to take advantage of the problems and mishaps that plagued top drivers James Russell, Arjun Rao and Mike Tapper.

Meanwhile the top three drivers continued the second day with preservation in mind and apart from a minor mechanical problem with the fuel pump on Perodua M5 Rally team’s Viva 4WD Turbo driven by Lim Leong Onn which was running second, the top three drivers held on to the positions they started in the morning.

Karamjit Singh held on to his generous seven-minute lead while his Team Pennzoil teammate, Gunaseelan Rajoo could not capitalize on Lim’s mechanical problems and remained in third place.

Karamjit, the Malaysian Rally Champion had a trouble-free weekend but said that the newly graded tracks in several of the SS proved to be more tricky than usual.

“The track is a combination of fast and slow sections and they can catch drivers off-guard. The track is especially tricky in the newly graded section and as the first car we had to be careful,” Karamjit said.

He explained that the newly graded sections are extra slippery because the freshly exposed earth is loose and it turns to mud more easily when it rains.

His navigator, Jagdev Singh said he had to add a few cautions to his notes to account for the damp track after it rained early Sunday morning.

“We had a comfortable lead and the track was slippery so my job was to remind Karamjit that he does not have to push as hard as usual,” he said.

Meanwhile Lim said his Perodua Viva 4WD Turbo drove very well, apart from the problem with the fuel pump which was replaced at the first service break. “We lost some time in SS2 and SS3 but we kept our place,” Lim added.

His navigator, Khairul Anuar Mohd Razzali said they pushed hard at the later stages to make sure that they kept their second spot.

Team Pennzoil driver and manager, Gunaseelan Rajoo is happy to be in third and have teammate Karamjit in first. “Karamjit was far ahead of everyone so his position was secure while I am still learning to adapt to the new Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX. There are some teething problems but overall everything went well for me and for the team so we are quite pleased,” said Guna.

Team Pennzoil extended their lead over their closest rival, Perodua M5.

Karamjit is still supreme in the driver’s ranking, followed by Lim and Gunaseelan.

James Russell of SR Motorsport was happy to have a good day today finishing all the Stages without incident after his car was repaired overnight. He finished second in Class A8 behind Gunaseelan Rajoo. Russell didn’t finish Leg One yesterday because he lost control in SS2 and damaged his car, blocking 12 others behind him.

The competitors were presented with their trophies and prize money by Tuan Haji Mohamad Dan Mohd Zain, Assistant Regional General Manager, Felda Kuantan Region.

<< Back