Rally Scotland last week marked the last round of 2009 Intercontinental Rally Challenge. Unlike its senior sibling WRC which has lost its distinct competition values whereas every victory was easily predicted to the favour of current champion Sebastian Loeb, the IRC on the contrary has almost refreshing surprise element outcomes.
Firstly the return of Scottish Alister McRae the younger 
brother of the late 1995 World Rally Champion, Colin McRae. The Scottish Rally Driver has been racing Mellors Elliot Motorsport developed Proton Satria Neo Super 2000 at Asia Pacific Rally Championships (APRC). Though he just joined MEM recently in September he seemed to be working hard refreshing his memory on Scotland tracks, perhaps due to his past years activities in Asia Pacific region where he is residing in Australia.
Super 2000 might be the base of Rally Specs regulation for the future WRC as it offers better cost competitive rally management, and it has apparently attracted many Auto Maker participations including the newcomer Malaysian Proton. McRae’s record at APRC and the opportunity to compete in IRC was indeed a confident move for MEM.
The 278hp Racing Proton Satria Neo S2000 has extensive Engine Modification Chip Upgrades perhaps beyond any ECU Management; featuring GEMS Multiplex System with Power Management, Data Logging and an LCD Display Dash showing continuous tracking and logging over 50 variables with two setting modes for either stage or road Rallying purposes. Stage mode uses the powerful race settings within stages but road mode is used when the rally car has to travel between stages amongst ordinary traffic.
Secondly the winning IRC champ Kris Meeke who was the late Colin McRae’s pupil and protégé was seen cruising to lead 7 out of the 13 stages securing more additional championship points, having Mechanical Engineering Degree background Meeke was briefly working for Malcolm Wilson’s M-Sport as a Computer Aided Engineer. In 2009, Meeke with the aide of co-driver Paul Nagle compete in a Peugeot UK backed 207 S2000. Despite of his spectacular crash on Monte Carlo Rally he went on to win the next three consecutive rounds at Brazil, Portugal, and Belgium. The following win at Rally Sanremo in Italy did secure him 2009 championship, after his closest rival Jan Kopecky crashed on the second stage.
Thirdly the younger McRae was seen rallying with impeccable skill, contrary to his older brother Alister is typically a smooth Rally Driver; going from apex to apex without noticeable twitchiness yielding faster time lap in a smooth car control manner. His return at Scotland track with Proton gave remarkable performance of closing the gap in particular to the top two drivers in a typical neck to neck racing between Kris and Guy Wilks’ Skoda from one stage to another.
Fourthly both McRae and Wilks have had brought to the spotlight extreme capabilities of 2WD Super 2000 class to the highly competitive WRC level, Mc Rae on a Toyota Corolla S2000 where as Wilks on a Civic Type R3 run by JAS Motorsport. Incidentally the dominating two-wheel drive category Civic Type R3 is the rising popular choice even amongst private teams on this event.
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