Karam shows his pace on snowy season opener



In only their second attempt at the Swedish Rally, Team Proton PERT
Malaysia drivers Karamjit Singh and Allen Oh were holding a brilliant
fourth place in the FIA Production Car World Rally Championship category
when the icy conditions saw their new Mellors Elliot Motorsport-prepared
Group N Proton PERT slide into a deep snow-filled ditch on the
penultimate stage. Spectators helped them get back on track, but over 13
minutes had been lost and they eventually finished in tenth place.



Today's showdown, the shortest leg of the rally, comprised of two loops
of three stages covering 96.60kms. If the milder temperatures experienced
before the event were unusual, normal service resumed today as bitterly
cold wintry conditions returned to the Varmland area of Sweden. After
heavy snow fell overnight, snow ploughs were sent through the special
stages to make them passable. Despite this, frequent snow showers
throughout the day resulted in stages resembling traditional Swedish
Rally conditions and a change from the patchy ice and gravel experienced
earlier in the event.



Sporting a new Gp N Proton PERT, made especially for 2004 thanks to
backing from Proton and the Malaysian Government, Karam made a solid
start on the opening leg of the rally on Friday (February 6) to secure
fifth position overnight.



On only his second time competing on snow, Karam showed the locals that
experience doesn't count for everything as he kept his nerve on the
second leg of the rally to climb to third position. SS8 brought drama to
day two by catching out both Toshi Arai and Gianluigi Galli who went off
the road losing several minutes each. Karam suffered no such problems and
made light work of the stage putting almost a minute and a half between
himself and fourth placed Tomasz Kuchar. This turned out to be a crucial
gap as towards the end of the day Karam's car suffered a momentary
computer glitch which saw him slide off the road. With the help of
spectators he managed to rejoin and complete the stage losing around 50
seconds, holding on to third position going into the final leg of the
rally.



With fresh snowfall overnight today's final six stages were
treacherously slippery, and Karam took an understandably cautious
approach on the opening three stages of the day.



Karam comments: "After the front runners had been through, this
morning's stages were mostly ice with only a little snow when we ran
through them, unless you got off line. I've been sliding about a lot and
have had so many close calls already today that I plan to just survive
the last three stages of the rally."



Little did Karam know how relevant his statement would be, having slipped
back to fourth place going into the second loop of this morning's three
stages, he was determined to maintain position. Holding fourth, over a
minute clear of fifth placed Kuchar coming out of SS17 it had looked as
if he would achieve this until drama unfolded on the penultimate stage of
the day. Karam understeered off the road on SS18 and got stuck in a ditch
losing over 13 minutes.



Karam comments: "We slid off the road and ended up in a ditch at a forty
five degree angle which made it very difficult for us to get out.
Spectators did manage to get us out eventually but this time it took over
thirteen minutes and all was lost."



Having lost so much time Karam made it through the final stage of the day
to finish the Swedish Rally in tenth position in the FIA Production Car
World Rally Championship.



A philosophical Karam said: "I'm obviously very disappointed especially
from a championship point of view as it was looking like we were going to
secure five or six points here but in one stage they've all gone. These
things happen; we still have five events left to go so there's still
plenty of time to get some good results. Now I'm really looking forward
to Rally Mexico and some sunshine compared to these cold conditions!
It's a country I've never been to before and it'll be good to be back
on gravel".



Team Proton PERT Malaysia's next event will be Rally Mexico, a new
addition to the World Rally Championship calendar, which takes place on
March 11-14. An all-gravel event, the rally is based in Leon and will
bring much welcomed warmer weather after the coldness of Sweden.

-tpp-


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