PROTON's foray into motorsports started with the collaboration with Mitsubishi Motors that eventually led to the partnership between PETRONAS and EON, forming the Petronas EON Racing Team (PERT) in the late 80's.

The team was involved in circuit racing but focused mainly on rallying. Rally events are run over several days and over adverse terrain and unpredictable weather which provided the ideal platform to showcase the performance and durability of Proton cars. The team went on to win many races in their class, both at home and abroad.

PERT also won the Best Malaysian Entry Award and the Manufacturers Award for the last eight years.

 

The team made headline victories emerging first and sixth in the Rally of Thailand, 1992, and the Dubai International Rally, in 1993.

The team also emerged first in the Rallye Ng Philipinas for three consecutive years in 1995, 1996 and 1997. Many more victories followed, among them emerging champions in the World Rally Championship for Production Cars in 2002 under Malaysia's most successful rally combination of Karamjit Singh and Allen Oh.

In 2004, the Proton Motorsports Division, or R3 (Race.Rally.Research) was formed. Their role was not only to compete in high level race and rally events, but to also research and develop performance components using knowledge gained from motorsports participation. The culmination of this was the creation of the first R3 Limited Edition Vehicle (LEV), the Proton Satria R3. The technology and knowledge gleaned from participation in motorsports helped the Satria R3 LEV



The PROTON R3 Race/Rally Team was formed in the year 2004 when PROTON took a break from international rallying.

The team went on to compete in track racing and local rallying events, frequently emerging victorious in races such as the Merdeka Millennium Endurance Race, Malaysian Rally Championship, FIA GT Championship and Japan GT Championship.

In 2009, PROTON re-entered the international Rallying scene starting in the FIA Asia Pacific Rally Championship with the brand new Proton Satria Neo S2000. Based on the FIA's latest rally formula, the S2000 category cars are exciting to watch, and featured some of the latest technology but at a more affordable cost as compared to the top-tier World Rally cars.

In 2011, PROTON took an unprecedented 8 titles in the FIA Asia Pacific Rally Championship together with its 2WD group N team. Notable titles included the Manufacturer's Title, Overall Driver's Title, 2WD Manufacturer's Title, 2WD Driver's title, and Junior Drivers Title.

Most recently, the team won 1st in S-WRC (Super 2000 World Rally Championship) in the World Rally Championship round of Sweden. Run in the forests of Norway and Sweden, PROTON emerged victorious despite the freezing temperatures and challenging high speed sections on snow and ice.