Team MRF’s Naren-Ram win second successive rally
Nashik, 7 July 2002: Ace Coimbatore pair, VR Naren Kumar and co-driver D Ramkumar representing Team MRF notched up a facile win in the WIAA Taj Rally 2002, the second round of the MAI Indian National Rally Championship (INRC) here on Sunday. The 2000 champions have now back-toback wins following their triumph in the season opener at home in March.
Organised by Western India Automobile Association (WIAA) under the aegis of National Federation, the Motorsports Association of India, the two-day rally favourites Naren and Ram clinch the issue once again to top the table in the National Championship.
After taking a narrow two seconds lead overnight, the duo were expecting a tough fightback kfrom talented team-mates Arjun Balu and co-driver BS Sujith Kumar and raised the tempo despite the rains that made the stages slippery. In the process, Naren, increased the lead to a comfortable level in the very first stage and then eased off.
“We decided to go flat out and opened a gap on Arjun with over 20 seconds lead. Then we eased off and nurtured the car to win the event”, said an elated Naren Kumar. However, he said any talk about the championship are `premature’ right now. “But two wins in the bag, is good to start,” the two-time National champion concluded.
The current Asian Zone champions, Naren and Ram took part in the Asia Pacific Rally Championship also and have driven two rallys at Canberra and New Zealand and are expected to run two more rallies in Asia.
Team MRF’s Karandip Singh with Bangalore navigator Jaidas Menon finished Overall third followed by National champion N Leelakrishnan and co-driver Farooq Ahmed in Overall fourth.
Soharab Zorabian and co-driver Rio Kapadia won the Rally Star Cup category while Parvinder Saundh and co-driver Paritosh Kohok came second with Tirtha Patil and co-driver Ashwin Naik taking the third spot.
Soharab who finished ahead of the more powerful 1400 cc cars, on Saturday, had a lead of 13 seconds over Parvinder Saundh (the only entrant from Nashik), and he managed a 31 seconds
lead in the first stage on Sunday and three seconds in the second stage. Parvinder managed to gain a second in the last stage, and finished second in this category with co-driver (ex two-wheeler navigator National champion) Paritosh Kohok. Tirhta Patil (co-driver Ashwin Naik) finished third in the class.
Jiby Maliakkal and co-driver Rohan Rego the reigning Rally Star Cup champions found the going very comfortable with Abhilash out of the reckoning and romped home with a huge lead, winning the 1400cc category. Jiby and Rohan finished a creditable Overall fifth also. Abhilash and co-driver Sangeeth Kumar came second with N Jayakumar and co-driver G Satish taking the third place in the 1400cc class.
All drop-outs of the first leg except Ram Prashanth started today’s leg and finished the Leg. And twelve of the total 15 starters finished the rally in full.
Final provisional results:
Overall & 1600 cc: 1. VR Naren Kumar /D Ramkumar (Team MRF) (1hour, 18min, 42sec); 2. Arjun Balu /BS Sujith Kumar (Team MRF) (1:19:09); 3. Karandip Singh /Jaidas Menon (Team MRF) (1:20:21); 4. N Leelakrishnan /Farooq Ahmed (Team MRF) (1:19:35).
1400cc class: 1. Jiby Maliakkal /Rohan Rego (1:28:54); 2. PG Abhilash /Sangeeth Kumar (1:34:30); 3. N Jayakumar /G Satish (1:34:50).
Rally Star Cup: 1. Soharab Zorabian /Rio Kapadia (1:25:44); 2. Parvinder Saundh /Paritosh Kohok (1:26:31); 3. Tirtha Patil /Ashwin Naik (1:27:51); 4. N Arun Rahul /Harsha Thaminar (1:31:19); 5. Karthikeyan R /SB Rajkumar (1:31:20).
