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Wodonga father and son team Todd and Brian Reed have taken victory in
the Clarion Car Audio Proton Rally Trophy after a hard fought six round
series which was wrapped up at the Rally of Melbourne.
The Reeds, from Wodonga in Victoria, finished just two points ahead of
NSW driver Dave King from Orange in the one make championship.
The Reeds will receive a significant first prize of $4000 and a 1.6
litre Satria XLS to run in the 2002 Australian Rally Championship for
their efforts in this year¹s Proton Rally Trophy.
The Clarion Car Audio Proton Rally Trophy was fought out across rounds
of the Australian Rally Championship with the two contenders separated
by only one second going into the last stage of the Rally in Melbourne.
According to Todd Reed the Proton Rally Trophy has provided a great
chance to get into rallying on a low budget with incredibly close
competition.
We have had an absolute blast battling with Dave and the other Proton
runners for a fraction of the cost other competitors have had to fork
out said Todd.
We have probably won more prizemoney than just about anyone else in the
Australian Rally Championship thanks to the generosity of Clarion and
Proton, he added.
Clarion has announced it will be backing the Proton Rally Trophy for
2002 with major prize money and a performance boost as the series
switches to the performance packed Satria XLS next year.
According to Marketing Manager of Clarion Car Audio, Mr Lew
Campbell-Smith, the company is proud to back a national rally series
which aims to identify new young talent and give young drivers a chance
to showcase their talent,.
Clarion and Proton are both aiming for a youthful audience and rallying
is a form of extreme motorsport which gives us direct exposure to this
market so in this case it is the perfect vehicle for us, said Lew
Campbell-Smith.
Proton Motorsport Manager Paul Steer said he believed Clarion's backing
in 2002 will be a major boost to the Proton Rally Trophy in 2002 as it
moves up to the bigger engined Satria XLS.
Many teams have registered an interest in competing in the series next
year and it looks like being just as close as the series was this year,
said Mr Steer.
We are putting together an upgrade package to convert current cars to
the new rules for 2002 which will keep current competitors in the series
and ensure the value of cars which are already built, he added.
The little Malaysian hatches came through the 2001 series with flying
colours with not one mechanical problem and 100% reliability.
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