Another twist for the Malaysian Rally Championship 2018 is a last minute change of venue for the second round. With all the competitors gear up to head east for a new event in the calendar, the Perlis round which is scheduled to take place in December had to be brought forward to this weekend replacing Kuala Terengganu. With heavy downpours forecast especially this time of the year, it could be one of the muddiest events to be seen this season because when it rains in Perlis it won’t stop!

It will be a totally different event from what we have seen over the past seasons should the rain continues to fall in Perlis this coming week. Competitors and crew will have a lot of mud to play with.

A record number of 33 cars will start the event on Saturday with Championship leader Indonesia Rachmat and co driver Donno leading the blast through the 9 stages which makes up the rally. He is expected to have a hard time as Karamjit Singh is all fired up to trash with his rebuilt Proton Gen 2 4wd. MRU Motorsports, One Motorsports BDRT, OTFT rally team and Tefu-Tefu world rally team are among the teams fielding their strongest drivers and cars. Among them are Mohd Rafiq and Shazmie (MRU), Haji Suhaimi and Chepot (One Motorsports), Syakirin (OTFT) and Sotaru Ito (Tefu-Tefu WRT).

Fresh from his rally in APRC Japan, Abdul Kaathir of 23 Motors will be eager to start the event with his Proton Satria Neo and Haniff Borhan will be out to make amends with his Subaru Impreza after a dazzling drive in Johor. In the P11 class for cars up to 1.8 cc, Current leader Azizi is expected to be seriously challenged by Muhammad Khairul, Shah Bandi and Dinnie. All of which are eager to get the better of Azizi whom drove brilliantly in Johor to win the class after a very very long break from the championship.

The rally begins Saturday morning with the mandatory Recce and competitors will do a loop of 3 stages before the overnight regroup at Hotel Seri Malaysia and on Sunday a further 6 stages around “Kilang Gula” in Chuping. In total 9 the competitors will tackle 9 stages and over 150km of timed competitive stages over the course of the weekend.

Yuya Sumiyama and Rachmat bags it
22/7/2018

The final 6 stages of Leg 2 was run under what is considered the ideal rallying conditions in Malaysia. Cloudy skies and damp gravel surfaces provided excellent grip and no dust to choke up visibility. Driving the successful Skoda Fabia R5, Cusco Racing Yuya bags the 2018 edition of the International Rally of Johor. Teammate Mike Young finished second well over a minute behind with Yuya. Both Yuya and Mike Young was pleased with their performance and credit everyone for a wonderful weekend. It's a meaningful victory for Cusco Racing as they continue to develop the Toyota Vitz. It’s the first time for the Toyota Vitz in Malaysia and valuable data was collected with the car adapting to the heat and humidity of the Rally. Cusco plan sell the AP4 kit to customers in the near future. Leg 2 restarters PG Abhilash and Abdul Kaathir finished 3rd and 4th respectively. The APRC heads to Rally Hokkaido in September.

Indonesian Rachmat and his MRU motorsport prepared Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9 dominated round 1 of the Malaysian Rally Championship with a 4 minit margin ahead of the 30 strong entries. It was an excellent result for Rachmats first international rally. He well prepared for the event with numerous testing sesion a month before the event. Satoru Ito came in second with his Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X. Its Satoru’s finest result in the MRC since rallying here a few years ago. 3rd and 4th spot went to One Motorsport BDRT Hj Suhaimi and Roduwan Rashid. The two were plagued with minor car problems throughout the event. MRU motorsports Salehuddin rounded up the top 5. MORE >>>