Despite several days of heavy rain and low temperatures at last weekend’s (15 – 17 July 2011) International Rally of Whangerai (New Zealand), Karamjit Singh won the event in

the 2WD category and emerged 4th of the APRC registered drivers in the 4th Round of The Asia-Pacific Rally Championship (APRC).

 

Karamjit and his co-driver, Vivek Ponnusamy of India, played the tactics perfectly and emerged ahead of all the other competitors at the closely fought race on

Day 1.

 

“Tyre choice and driving tactics were extremely important in these conditions, which were mostly fast flowing, winding stages. It would have been easy to have an incident and be off”, Singh said. However, the multiple APRC champion displayed cool confidence and expert car control in keeping his CUSCO powered Proton Satria Neo safely on the road.

 

Day 2 saw more retirements at the top of the field with Team MRF’s Katsu Taguchi and Gaurav Gill retiring from the rally, allowing the “Flying Sikh” to move up to 4th in APRC. “It was an extremely tough rally. I’m just thankful that we won the rally in our class and secured valuable points. It is definitely a bonus that we managed to finish in a strong

position overall as well”, Singh said.  

His third successive victory in three rounds competed (missed Malaysian round) firmly puts him in a comfortable lead in the 2WD championship. With two more rounds to go in the 2011 season, Karamjit is hoping to extend his lead further and mark his APRC return by being crowned the 2WD champion.

 

APRC 2011 CALENDAR

1 – 3 April Malaysian Rally

13 – 15 May Rally Queensland, Australia

17 – 19 June Rallye de Nouvelle Caledonie

15 – 17 July Rally of Whangarei, New Zealand

30 Sept – 2 Oct Rally Hokkaido, Japan

4 – 6 November China Rally

For further details and current updates on Team KARAMJIT MOTORSPORTS’ APRC

campaign, please contact DHEVAN NAIR – 016 311 2244 or you can check out

www.aprc.tv & www.rallywhangarei.co.nz.

PHOTOS BY Marcel Stawiczny