Karamjit's APRC Johor Shakedown

It has been confirmed that Malaysia's car rally ace driver Karamjit Singh and his navigator Jagdev Singh will be replaced by Alister McRae and Bill Hayes for the upcoming Indonesian round of the Asia-Pacific Rally Championship (APRC) to be held early next month. The official reason given by Proton on the duo being replaced is that Karamjit is not available. Now, is Karamjit injured, sick or what? None of that. He is simply not fast enough as seen in the previous 5th round of the APRC held in Johor, Malaysia last month. And why is that so?

The Satria Neo Super 2000 is an immensely powerful car even though it’s normally-aspirated. But if one had been driving a RH-drive car all this while, it might be a tad difficult to adapt to a LH-drive car and that was exactly what Karamjit was experiencing. Difficulty in handling a LH-drive car. Mind you, steering with your left hand and changing gears with your right is not as simple as said than done. We’re not talking about a Sunday drive here, please remember that.

As seen in Johor, it was obvious that Karamjit had difficulty. The expression on his face (from on-board cam) while driving and after showed just that. Guessed he was left a frustrated man, not to mention his navigator.

To those not familiar with the Satria Neo Super 2000, it is currently available only in LH-drive version and news is that the RH-drive version won’t be available in the immediate future. So Karamjit and Co would have to wait much longer for it. Too bad for them.

As for the upcoming Round 6 of the APRC to be held in Makassar, Indonesia, here’s wishing the Proton team all the best, come rain or shine! CIAO!

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Gunaseelan Rajoo

FYI ...Karam drives a left hand drive car for his daily use and its been like that for a good few years now...so its not that, yes its not easy to drive a left hand drive , but we r talking abt karam here..FYI also he drove a LHD ford X works car in Thailand in 2001 or 02 and won in many races ! 2 years ago he drove a evo 9 in China and that was a LHD also...he was not slow ...clocking top 3 times in all the stages ....so thats not the thing here at the moment ...why is he not in Indonesia driving the Malaysian Car ????