Watson-Smith added to Proton line-up.

Watson-Smith added to Proton line-up.

As has been rumoured for some weeks, South African touring car ace Shaun Watson-Smith has been named as the leader of Team Petronas Syntium Proton's British Touring Car campaign in 2004.

The experienced 33-year old joins relatively unknown Malaysian Fariqe Hairuman in the line-up having made his name with Petronas backing in his homeland. The Port Elizabeth native is used to winning in touring cars, having won his first ever 'tin-top' race and scored five victories for Team Petronas in the 2000 South African Touring Car Championship on his way to the championship runner-up spot. Since then, he has extended his impressive performances with a string of wins in the fearsome Wesbank V8 racers.

Watson-Smith began his motorsport career at the age of 14, initially in motocross - where he took several titles - before switching to karting at 17 and then moving on to Production Cars in 1991. Following several championship victories, he was invited to join the Opel South Africa team in 1994 and racked up race wins and titles for the Petronas-backed works team. In the process, he became the most crowned driver in South African Production Car Series history.

Underpinning the team's commitment to developing Malaysian driving talent, Mohd Syahrizal Bin Jamaludin has been signed as a replacement for Hairuman for various Malaysian and Asian races, as well as acting as the team's BTCC test driver.

"Shaun brings valuable experience to Team PSP on both the racing and development fronts," team principal David Wong said, "Syahrizal is another young Malaysian talent we are grooming for success in the future and to follow in Fariqe's footsteps."