By Bill Buys, Community Newspaper Group motoring editor
REIGNING Asia Pacific Rally Champion Alister McRae has done it again, taking his second successive victory in the muddy Malaysian Rally at the weekend.
The Hillarys driver, with Perth co-driver Bill Hayes, used a revised specification Proton Satria-Neo S2000, with the car featuring upgrades from the latest homologation.
As usual, the conditions on the Malaysian round of the series were some of the toughest of the year, but McRae collected his – and the Malaysian manufacturer’s – biggest ever win in the FIA series.
They won by more than 25 minutes, a veritable chasm in rally terms.
“For us, the start was quite frustrating,” McRae said.
“We had a puncture going into the second stage, but we got through and the next day moved into the lead.
“It’s fantastic to take this win – and to see the kind of enjoyment and delight it brought to all the spectators and our team members.”
Teammate Per-Gunnar Andersson had the early lead, but retired with electrical failure on his car.
Second overall was former teammate Chris Atkinson in a Skoda Fabia 2000, with Brian Green in a Subaru Impreza claiming third.
The tens of thousands of partisan home fans lining much of the route were well rewarded when McRae and Hayes delivered the perfect result.
It was a massive win and a massive boost for Malaysia and its vast motorsport-supporting public.
The next round of the Super 2000 World Rally Championship is Rally Finland on August 2-4, home event for P-G Andersson who won it last year.