According to Dato Mohd Nadzmi, the chairman of Proton Group, “It has been quite a while but we’re now ready to return to the rally motorsports arena. With the Neo S2000 and our long time associate Karamjit, we are sure that we will put up a strong challenge in this championship. What the car has achieved thus far while still in the developmental stage has been extraordinary,”
Karamjit, who has already made his name as the country’s top rally driver over the years is upbeat about his chances but one of the main problems he expects to face is the fact that the cars are in left-hand drive modes, which in his own accord could be of an advantage. He said “If the car was right-hand-drive I would be confident and able to attack. It’s a fabulous car and the tricky Stages I can handle. I just don’t feel comfortable so I’ll be taking it easy to ensure we finish,”
In the rally championships, common sports car brands like Mitsubishi and Subaru has already well established themselves to be at the forefront and this is exactly the plan which Proton is said to be executing in order to parade their cars and technology to the world. The Satria is one of the best examples of such as it is often the platform by which Proton usually adopt as their racing model. The Rally of Malaysia is on this week with Indonesia coming along and China in October and November respectively.
Having said that, Karamjit did not do as good as many expected when his Neo 2000 fell into the ditch in the first leg of the Malaysian Rally. He offered no excuses and said “In SS1 we stalled many times and we had to reverse many times so we lost more than a minute. Then in SS2 we were doing much better but unfortunately I clipped a corner too early and ditched the car,”
