Malaysian Rally Championships 2008 –Round 1
Kuala Lumpur, 1 April 2008- The first round of the 2008 Malaysian Rally Championship ended in Bahau, Negri Sembilan, with reigning Malaysian Rally Champion, Karamjit Singh finishing second in a rented Proton Satria amongst a starting field of twenty cars. Despite having only two-wheel drive and having neither the power nor traction, his skill made up for any shortcomings of the car, proving yet again that he is still the king of the rally stages.
“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 had 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, after the first day of racing.
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 were 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 day one. 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 was 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 the end of day one the bumpy and twisty stages in Bahau claimed six cars 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. Meanwhile privateer Amir Ahmad’s tried to see if his Proton Satria was stronger than a tree in SS2; the tree won, and he was unable to continue.
No less impressive was Perodua M5 Racing team’s result with three cars in the top five. “This is our best result so far. Usually we are happy to have two cars finishing but this time all three are in the top five. It was a combination of factors that helped us win. Firstly the cars ran well, secondly the team worked like clockwork and no less important was the weather which gave us the perfect track, not too wet and not too dry,” said Gary Chua, Team Manager.
The team’s 4WD Perodua Viva Turbo behaved perfectly in the hands of veteran driver Lim Leong Onn and stayed five minutes clear of the strong challenge by Karamjit Singh.
Lim’s navigator Kamarul Anuar Mohd Razzali said they were able to find their pace as early as SS3 after getting the perfect suspension setting.
“From then on we charged hard and kept our focus and the two days went on trouble free until the last two SS when the car began losing stability. We worked it very hard so something must have worn out or loosened underneath but it was good enough to keep us in front,” he said.
Third-place man Kan Chee Hong’s race was a deep contrast to Lim’s free sailing drive as he endured poor communications with navigator Bernard Chin due to a failed intercom on day one.
After the intercom was fixed, his 4WD Myvi Turbo developed gearbox problems which saw him driving two SS in second gear.
The mechanics quickly found the problem and sorted it out but that was not the end of their troubles.
In the second day, they damaged the exhaust system and this denied them the full turbo boost and stopped their charge to reduce the gap with second place man Karamjit.
By the final SS, Kan was just three minutes behind the Flying Sikh and six minutes ahead of teammate P Nandakumar in his 2WD Perodua Myvi.
“We are happy to finish third and score points for the team but disappointed that we could not reduce the time gap,” said Chin.
As the big boys battled in front, clubman driver Roduwan Rashid did himself proud by clocking the sixth fastest time in his 4WD Perodua Kelisa completing 14SS 32 minutes behind the leader.
The Bahau round claimed seven cars out of the twenty starters, considered a relatively high rate of attrition. Clerk of the Course for the Championship, Tengku Shaharin Abu Bakar Almarhum Tengku Suleiman, said he was pleased so many cars made it through the first leg. “After the heavy downpour the night before, I thought we would be pulling cars out of the Stages on day one but those that didn’t finish did so mostly because of mechanical failure. Today was a lot drier which gave everyone a chance to push their cars a bit harder,” he said. “I hope the competitors enjoyed the first Round of the season and will join us again for Round Two in Terengganu on May 24 & 25.
Winners were presented their trophies by YB Shamsol Kahar Md. Deli, State Assemblyman for Serting and State Exco at Kompleks Feldajaya Selatan, Jempol.
Top six:
1. Lim Leong Onn / Kamarul Anuar Mohd. Razzali Perodua Viva 2:17:45
2. Karamjit Singh / Jagdev Singh Proton Satria 2:23:08
3. Kan Chee Hong / Bernard Chin Perodua Myvi 2:25:57
4. P. Nandakumar / Suresh Parkash Sharma Perodua Myvi 2:32:25
5. Jamaluddin Tukimin / Rozita Tukimin Proton Satria 2:40:38
6. Roduwan Rashid / Musa Sahbardin @Sabar Perodua Kelisa 2:50:12
