SIBU: Seasoned rally driver William Mei and co-driver Jagdev Singh powered their Isuzu D-Max Super Commonrail to a magnificent first in the standard production class and fourth overall in the opening round of the AAM 4×4 Rally Championship 2008 in Tampin despite an earlier excursion into a ditch in SS3 that incurred them a maximum stage time penalty.

The race and rally veteran, who has over four decades of competitive experience, put in a tremendous charge in his T2 class D-Max but was denied the overall win twice due to misfortune.

Mei had set the early pace and was building up a strong lead from the start with his 3-litre D-Max but a fallen tree near the end of SSI caused the stage to be cancelled and thwarted his fine run.

Then in SS3, Mei again put in a good charge and had neutralised his eight-minute deficit to the leaders when a slight error saw him slip off the road at a T-junction into a ditch and incurred a time penalty getting the car back on the road.

“We had a good run in the impressive D-Max but we were just unfortunate not to win. The car performed impeccably and the power and strength of the DS-Max are equal to the task,” said Mei, who was amazed that the standard vehicle was so competitive against other highly-modified purpose-build race machines.

Assistant manager, Product Planning of Isuzu Malaysia, Wan Zaqi Zacary, said it was testimony of the sound engineering and technology heritage of Isuzu vehicles that ensured all three Isuzu vehicles entered in the rally finished well.

“The Isuzu D-Max Super Commonrail ran flawlessly throughout the two days of competition and proved to be powerful, durable and reliable machine through very tough and challenging racing conditions,” said Zaqi.

Twelve starters drove through the starting arch ion Saturday and ten vehicles eventually made it to the finishing line the next day in Tampin Square.