The only other rally winners were Indian Skoda driver Gaurav Gill at the Rallye de Nouvelle Calédonie and Malaysian Proton driver Karamjit Singh.
When informed, the Prime Minister of Malaysia, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi reportedly asked: "If Karamjit is a Malaysian and has been producing results and bringing honour to the country, why has support not been accorded to him?"
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The Malaysian Sports Minister, Azalina Othman Said, was also reported as stating that she had been ordered to look into the matter, and that "we want to find out why the private sector have not come forward and secondly, if Karamjit has someone to manage him and put forward his cause in the right perspective so sponsors can come forward and use the spin-off from their association."
Proton Motors of Malaysia raced Evolution III's, Evolution V's (most notable with Proton 1784 where Malaysian driver Karamjit Singh won the 2002 Production Car WRC) and an Evolution VII as the Proton PERT in various Asia-Pacific Rally Championship and APAC rally series.
Since joining the Asia-Pacific championship a number of competitors have claimed multiple victories: Malaysian driver Karamjit Singh, Finnish driver Jussi Välimäki, Japanese driver Katsuhiko Taguchi and most recently Indian driver Gaurav Gill.
Manmohan Singh | Maharaja Ranjit Singh | Anurag Singh | Yuvraj Singh | Ranjit Singh | Jagjit Singh | Vijay Singh | Guru Gobind Singh | Bhagat Singh | Karan Singh | Khushwant Singh | Jai Singh I | Hari Singh | Talvin Singh | Simranjit Singh Mann | Parkash Singh Badal | Yograj Singh | Upasana Singh | Tiger Jeet Singh | Satendra Singh | Raj Singh | Mulayam Singh Yadav | Karamjit Singh | Harbhajan Singh | Ajit Singh | Sukhbir Singh Badal | Rawal Ratan Singh | Rajendra Singh | Pradeep Singh | Jaspreet Singh |