Karamjit hopes to rally for more support after switch to new set-up

SEPANG: Former world rally champion Karamjit Singh (pic) will get off to a fresh start under a new set-up this year.

Karamjit, who is the only world champion in motorsport, made a surprise announcement yesterday by ending his long-standing allegiance to Proton and will be switching to Perodua machinery this season.

Karamjit, who currently competes for Cisco Racing, dropped the bombshell at the 2022 National Rally Championship awards yesterday.

The Flying Sikh won his 17th Malaysia National Rally Championship (MNRC) overall title in a Proton Gen2 last year with co-driver Jagdev Singh.

Karamjit said it was a necessary move as Proton are no longer interested in supporting his rally endeavours after China’s Geely bought a controlling stake in the Malaysian auto manufacturer.

“I have always been a Proton fan and have been racing Protons since my early rallying days until now,” said Karamjit.

“Unfortunately, we do not have any support from Proton (anymore). Since I bought this Gen2 in 2017, I have spent over RM500,000 of my own money to modify it for racing. I have used up all of my EPF savings on this, not one cent is left now (in account).

“My (Cisco Racing) boss asked me to forget about Proton, and try out Perodua. Anyway, the current trend at the world level rally scene is to use smaller cars such as the Myvi.

“It is lighter and easier to race, so I said why not, let’s give it a try. Who knows, Perodua might sponsor us in the future,” said the 60-year-old Karamjit, who added that they have plans to meet with Perodua to discuss sponsorship plans.

“At the moment, the idea is to use the Myvi to race in MNRC this year but if Perodua sponsors us then we could also use it in the Asia Pacific Rally Championships (APRC), which of course requires a bigger budget.’’

Karamjit disclosed that it would take at least three months to develop an MNRC-spec Myvi at a cost of RM500,000 and it would cost closer to RM1mil to prepare a car to be competitive at the APRC level.

The new season of MNRC, organised by Purnama Rally Motorsports Club, is expected to begin in June.