This weekend saw a dominant win for Tom Cave and the PROTON Motorsports team on the Rally of Thailand; 20 year-old Cave was driving for the Malaysian manufacturer's works team as an official driver for the first time and won the two-day event by more than ten minutes, claiming the fastest time on all but the opening stage to take his first international rally win outside the UK.
Cave, currently leading the MSA British Rally Championship and partnered by regular co-driver Craig Parry, had been called up by the PROTON Motorsports team thanks to his speed and familiarity with the Satria Neo Super2000 car - he competed in a privately-owned and works-supported example in 2010.
His brief for the Rally Of Thailand, a key Proton market, was simple; get to the finish and get the best result possible.
This was the first time Cave had competed in the region and most of the event would be an unknown. Following a successful pre-event test and two-day recce, the rally began with a short superspecial and Tom and Craig went through second-fastest, just two seconds slower than last year's event winner, New Zealander Brian Greene.
However, it was on the first stage on Saturday, the 25Km Pasak Jolasid Chai Badan stage, where they made their intentions clear; they claimed the stage win by almost one-and-a-half minutes and by the end of the day's seven stages, held an 8 minute 22 second lead.
They maintained the same pace throughout the second day, Sunday, to arrive at the finish ramp as outright winners, with a margin of more than ten minutes.
Speaking after the finish, Tom said: "I am delighted that we were able to deliver the result that PROTON and the PROTON Motorsports team were hoping for and justified their faith in us. But I have to say, that was the hardest weekend of rallying I have ever done.
"The climate was incredible - 34 degrees Celsius and almost 100% humidity made it very demanding to maintain concentration, particularly on the first day, Saturday. There were four runs through a 28Km stage and the roads ran through jungle or plantations, so there was very little air around.
"The stages were also very demanding - the 28Km stage had 94 junctions in it, so it was very busy. In fact, Craig feels that it was the hardest day of rallying he has ever done and he's done pretty much every rally worth competing on!
"We took it very easy on the superspecial stage and settled into a good rhythm and pace for the first big stage on Saturday. When I saw the times, I realised that we just had to maintain that pace, not make any mistakes and hopefully, we would be able to get a good result. The feeling in the car was fantastic, so we stuck at that pace for the rest of the event and it paid off.
"PROTON and the PROTON Motorsports team seemed very happy with the result, as were Craig and I. The car has come on a huge amount since I last drove it and ran perfectly all weekend. It was fantastic to be back with the team and I am so grateful for the opportunity to be able to claim this victory for PROTON and of course, for us."
PROTON Motorsports Team Principal Chris Mellors was also understandably pleased with the result; "Tom's performance was spot on," he said. "He found just the right pace, was very sensible and drove an extremely mature rally. He did exactly what was asked of him and got the result that we hoped for. The rally itself was very interesting; good stages, well organised and we really enjoyed it."
This year, the Rally of Thailand is a candidate for the FIA Asia-Pacific Rally Championship, which PROTON won both the Manufacturers' and Drivers' category of in 2011.
Tom's next event will see him return to the UK for the fifth round of the MSA British Rally Championship, the Toddsleap International Rally in Ulster, Northern Ireland in August.
