Motor Rally: Proton's McRae grabs APRC crown

LONGYOU: A calm and collected Alister McRae left no room for drama as he hung on to a comfortable second-day lead to win the China Rally and clinch his first Asia Pacific Rally Championship (APRC) drivers' title yesterday.

The 40-year-old, driving a Proton Satria Neo S2000, clocked a total time of three hours and 38.6 seconds over 13 stages to finish first overall and help Proton secure the manufacturers' title for the first time since 2004. In second place was Soueast Motor Kumho Team's Jari Ketomaa on 3:01:52.9s while McRae's fellow Proton Motorsports Rally Team driver Chris Atkinson took third spot with a time of 3:02:17.0s.

The result was enough to see McRae, despite having the China Rally as his only win of the year, edge teammate Atkinson (three wins) to the drivers' title, thanks to a consistent string of podium finishes throughout the season. "We kept being aggressive throughout the first half of the day to preserve our lead and eased off slightly towards the end to secure the win today (yesterday)," said the Scot, who led the standings from start to finish in the three-day rally which covered a total of 231.4km.

"We have been working very hard throughout the whole year for this weekend and, thankfully, it has been one where just about everything has gone right for us. "There is a lot of uncertainty in the sport and there have been times in the season where we have faced a lot of problems and had to retire. This certainly makes things worthwhile. It's a great result for not only myself but also Proton," added McRae, who has Australian Bill Hayes as his co-driver.

A disappointed Atkinson, who with McRae were the only two drivers in contention for the drivers' title coming into the China Rally, said he was able to put in a better performance yesterday after relatively slow times in the earlier stages. "We were able to pick up the pace a little today (yesterday) but in the end we were too far behind to catch up with Alister and Jari who already led us by some margin," said the 31-year-old, who has Belgian Stephane Prevot as co-driver.

"Personally, I am disappointed to not win the (drivers') title but that is rallying. I am happy that we managed to get the 1-2 finish for Proton," added the Australian, who won the Malaysian, New Caledonia and New Zealand legs of the APRC this year. The clinching of the coveted drivers' and manufacturers' titles marks the end of a dominant season for Proton in the APRC where they also claimed convincing victories in the sub-categories of the championship -- Asia Cup (McRae), Pacific Cup (Atkinson), Rally Cup 2wd (Karamjit Singh), Junior Cup (Akira Bamba), Rally Cup 2wd Manufacturer (Proton) and the APRC Teams Trophy (Proton Motorsports Rally Team).

The new season of the APRC will start in March with New Zealand set to host the season opener.
RESULTS: 1 Alister McRae (Proton Satria Neo S2000) 3:00:38.6s, 2 Jari Ketomaa ( Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 10) 3:01:52.9s, 3 Chris Atkinson (Proton Satria Neo S2000) 3:02:17.0s, 4 Mark Higgins ( Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9) 3:06:04.5s, 5 Wei Hongjie ( Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9) 3:13:12.2s, 6 Rifat Sungkar (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9) 3:14:24.8s, 7 Yuya Sumiyama (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 10) 3:14:03.7s, 8 Li Wei (Subaru Impreza WRX STI) 3:16:40.2s, 9 Han Han (Subaru Impreza WRX STI) 3:16:41.2s, 10 Wang Hua (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9) 3:20:28.2s.

-NST Online.