Proton’s Satria Neo S2000 surged ahead to claim its third victory in the Asia Pacific Rally Championship (APRC), winning the Pacific Cup and with driver Chris Atkinson finishing first outright in the International Rally of Whangarei in New Zealand.
Alister McRae finished seventh overall in the rally but was second amongst the registered APRC contenders to give Proton a 1-2 finish for maximum points in the championship. He was in 3rd overall for most of the day in a battle with Kiwi Richard Mason who was fourth. Unfortunately, a spin in SS15, the 2nd last stage of the day dropped him to 7th.
Satria Neos also went on to clinch first and second places in the two-wheel drive category of the APRC championship with drivers Karamjit Singh and Akira Bamba in the Proton Cusco Rally Team 1600cc Satria Neos. Karamjit and Akira finished 4th and 5th overall in the APRC classification, 18th and 19th overall for the International Rally of Whangarei respectively from a field of 48 cars that restarted the second day of rallying. A third 1600cc Satria Neo at the hands of Indian driver Sanjay Ram finished 21st.
For Atkinson, victory in New Zealand was his third after Malaysia and New Caledonia. The Australian and former World Rally Championship (WRC) driver ran a trouble-free rally over the final day’s eight special stages contested against the backdrop of intermittent rain, setting fastest times on five special stages to seal victory for Proton 12.4 seconds ahead of local favourite Hayden Paddon in a Subaru Impreza WRX STi. Atkinson maintained great consistency throughout the two-day event and had even gone on to set a new record in the 10.99km special stage 14 with a time of 6 minutes 48.5 seconds, bettering the previous record held by Paddon by five seconds.
While the stages were generally fast and smooth flowing, the cold and wet conditions did provide a degree of challenge to drivers who were forced to contend with puddles and slippery patches. Among those who retired from the rally were the Team MRF’s and defending APRC champion Katsuhiko Taguchi and team mate Gaurav Gill, and Pertamina Cusco Racing’s Rifat Sungkar, all three driving a Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X.
Round five of the APRC moves to the Rally of Hokkaido in Japan in September with the final round being the China Rally in November.
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Tahniah Proton.
Another feather on the cap and hopefully will spur the company to a greater height.
Successfully burnt away Rakyat monies in NZ!
Everything is burning the Rakyat money…..U better check the fact mate. So, all the contenders also successfully burnt their rakyat’s money? And I bet the organizer also successfully burnt New Zealanders money.
What else can we expect? Maybe we can propose the IRC and WRC virtually set their race on video games. This will save millions man!!! No development, no rally technollogy, no other burning or rakyat’s money man.
Hardcore P1 basher. This is part of R&D dude..
burning petrol also consider burning rakyat money
Definitely not an expatriate. Most likely uneducated.
he think all foreigners are expat, but he’s just a construction worker here.
Of late, I see a lot of yellow mate. Ah… what a coinsidence. Anyway, go yellow, go proton, go people.
heheeh anything regarding proton good o bad involving rakyat money…. oh man..
by end of the year mbe my pocket full with dividends since i’ve been invested my “monies” to proton… tipical basher
heheheh why dun u asked discount when u eat kfc then ? u pay their tax what!
Tahniah Proton.
we proud of you coz u make yellow ‘ Kuning ‘ neo2000!
thank you Proton :)
karamjit dont support yellow..he in blue
Mr. Flying Singh
Congratz to Proton for having four cars on the top five of the New Zealand rally, beating the more powerful turbocharged cars like the Evos. You’ve made us Malaysians proud.
This rallying result shows that Proton is capable of fighting fire-with-fire against great rally machines such as Subaru Imprezas and Mitsubishi Lancer Evos. Now who says Proton is lousy?
Satria Neo chasis is far better than previous Mitsu’s Satria GTI :)
good job Proton Neo!
how i wish to own one..sigh~
Not too late, a fire red Satria neo R3 is still available in stores. ;)
Shameless promotion aside, proton really needs a 4wd model so they could compete with the big boys. This should be the future of satria.
THE MALAYAN TIGERs ROAR IN NEW ZEALAND
The NZ APRC championship saw the 1st, 2nd, 4th & 5th all won by Satria Neo.
More imazing, the Proton-Cusco Grp N Production landing up in 4th & 5th positions, the Neo’s certainly took down some top competitors with higher capacity engines and the 4wd. It also proves other than the experienced drivers like Karam and Jr driver, Akira Bamba, the Satria Neo’s realibility and competitiveness. SYABAS PROTON, you makes us very proud !
i just jizzed in my pants looking at the 2nd and 4th pic..
I demand Satria Neo S2000 in DiRT 4! or as a DLC in DiRT 3! heh heh..
when i was in codemasters, i get to do Malaysia tracks, which are based on several locations in Rawang. go to their website and make your demand, maybe they would listen :)
yeah amazing photo, i must say. just like a screencap out of DiRT or Sega Rally! kudos to photographer
Wow look at that road. I bet Neo just took to the air a couple of meters above the trees to give CA an aerial view of the road ahead. The Neo has a really cool look from the rear. Congratulation for winning the APRC, now make us proud in the WRC.
Congratulations to Karam & Proton team.Keep up the good work.It looks like the Satria Neo is a pretty competitive rally car after all,what more in the hands of proper&professional drivers,such as our Karamjit.
I still and always will support him for full sponsorship from Proton,he truly deserves it.Give the man a break,in a proper and fully sponsored ride from Proton,i’m positive he will run rings around the more better set up rides running in the rally.He’s already doing it now anyway,and long before this as well.
Go Karam bhai! Keep on knocking em’ dead.
Cheers.
Proton’s Satria Neo S2000 sapu Bersih 3.0 to claim its third victory in the Asia Pacific Rally Championship (APRC).
What’s next? Distribute a free Proton Satria Neo S2000 iphone/android app to showcase the car to the world and to commemorate the victories forever (virtually).
because of you satria neo s2000 will use other then yellow colour on next season…
Neo > Inspira
heh heh..
bravo proton.