Proton S2000 aims to fly in Hungary round of IRC

Practice in Hungary

Proton's S200 campaign has been quite fruitful, it has done well in APRC, not so well in the IRC but improving. Not to mention that fun Top Gear appearance in the UK vs OZ challenge.

This weekend the boys are in Hungary, a new round for the IRC and they think they can do well and make a strong entrance for the brand.

follow the jump for the rest of the story and the official Press Release




That bright yellow car has been one of Proton's best ambassador, it may even be a better ambassador than subsidiary Lotus...

I am wishing that the local rally scene will be refreshed to make it more attractive for manufacturers to take part, then maybe we will see a factory-prepped shell for local boys to play with

Best of luck guys

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PRESS RELEASE




PROTON GUNS FOR STRONG RESULT AND IMPACTFUL BRAND INTRODUCTION IN ALL-NEW HUNGARIAN RALLY


The Canon Mecsek Rallye’s first appearance on the Intercontinental Rally Challenge (IRC) calendar this weekend will place PROTON on equal footing with the other contending manufacturers and present it with as good a chance of victory as teams tackle 14 special stages of unfamiliar asphalt.
The newly-included event and round eight of the IRC will be contested over a competitive distance of 251.86km in the forest areas north of Pécs, run mainly on high-speed roads with more than 100 teams and 20 IRC regulars taking part.
The team’s challenge will be spearheaded by double Junior World Rally Champion P-G Andersson and two-time FIA European Rally Champion Giandomenico Basso. Both drivers had driven the Satria Neo S2000 to its best finish this season with a ninth and 13th place respectively at the recently-concluded Barum Czech Rally Zlin just over a week ago.
“The results in the Czech Republic showed that we have taken a big step forward in terms of development of the car. We were competitive and we had a strong package. Rallying in Hungary this weekend and with all teams essentially having no significant advantage over the other in terms of previous data and information with regards to set-up, we should be right up there in the heat of competition,” said Andersson.
PROTON is currently sixth in the IRC Manufacturer’s Standings with 33 points ahead of Honda and Abarth, with Skoda, Peugeot and M-Sport topping the top three places in the championship.
“We look forward to Hungary being an exciting event both for the team and the PROTON brand. A level playing field places us (the team) in contention for another potentially strong result this weekend and with that, an impactful introduction to the PROTON brand in Hungary,” said Datuk Abdul Razak Dawood, the Head of PROTON Motorsports.