Proton comes within 1.2 seconds of winning first special stage in IRC 09.10.2011: PROTON’s PG Andersson drove to a strong 12th place overall and 11th amongst the contenders in the Intercontinental Rally Challenge (IRC) at the end of a heatedly contested leg 1 in Rally Scotland.

PROTON’s PG Andersson drove to a strong 12th place overall and 11th amongst the contenders in the Intercontinental Rally Challenge (IRC) at the end of a heatedly contested leg 1 in Rally Scotland.

Running as high as third overall in the early stages of the three-day rally, the Satria Neo S2000, at the hands of Andersson, had also come within 1.2 seconds of  claiming the fastest time over the 8.36km second special stage.


After special stage five, Andersson was in fourth place overall but an electrical glitch caused him pick up a time penalty before continuing with the rest of the afternoon.


“The special stages were quite nice but unfortunately, we have some issues with the car and that cost us some time,” said the Swedish driver who has almost a minute to make for a finish in the top 10.


PROTON team mate Alister McRae meanwhile, had driven hard to claim a top 10 position, running as high as ninth, but was forced into early retirement when a rock damaged his Satria Neo S2000’s oil sump over the 17.68km Errochty fifth special stage .


Currently leading the rally is Skoda’s Andreas Mikkelsen with a massive lead of 50.7 seconds ahead of Bryan Bouffier in the Peugeot 207 S2000 while in third place is defending IRC champion Juho Hanninen in the second leading Skoda Fabia S2000.


Rally Scotland consists of 15 special stages run on gravel over a competitive distance of 196.96km in the forest roads of Stirling, Perth & Kinross and North Lanarkshire. The rally had kicked off with a 8.36km night super special stage for spectators before taking competitors through to another six special stages with the organisers having to cancel one special stage.




- Proton also photo -