Gaurav Gill, Musa Sherif win INRC Round 1 in a Mahindra SUV
By Sanjay Rajan
Nashik, 15 June 2014: “Gaurav Gill drove as if he was Skiing in wet tarmac and won#rallyofmaharashtra by 1min 48 seconds,” India’s top rally driver posted on his Facebook page after winning the opening round of the FMSCI-Indian Rally Championship in Nashik on Sunday.
Gill and his co-driver Musa Sherif in a Mahindra XUV timed 1 hour, 28 minutes and 30 seconds to clinch the overall honours ahead of Mahindra Adventure teammates and reigning National champions Amittrajit Ghosh and co-driver Ashwin Naik.
“A great start to the Indian Rally C’ship 2014 completing a hat-trick of Nashik Rally wins 2011,13,14,” Gill further posted on social media.
Gill, the 2013 Asia Pacific Rally champion, was the fastest in all the stages on Saturday and was yet behind Ghosh going into Sunday’s final day action after being docked penalty owing to delay at the service park.
“The Mahindra team had prepared the XUV very different from the previous year. So I wasn’t very conversant with the vehicle prior to the event. Also the stages were difficult than last year,” Gill said.
Gill, the 2011 National champion, made up for lost time in SS 8 on Sunday morning and appeared to cruise thereafter.
Byram Godrej and Somayya AG won in the IRC 2000 category, Hrishikesh Thackersey and Ninad Mirajgaonkar topped in the IRC 1600 category and Anirudha Ranganekar and Arjun Mehta won in the FMSCI 1600 Cup class.
The second round of the six-round championship will be held in Coimbatore from July 11 to 13.
The final classification: IRC Overall category: 1. Gaurav Gill/Musa Sherif (1:28:30), 2. Amittrajit Ghosh/Ashwin Naik (1: 30:18), 3. Byram Godrej/Somayya AG (1:32:11). IRC 2000: 1. Byram Godrej/Somayya AG, 2. Rahul Kantharaj/Vivek Bhat, 3. Sumit Panjabi/Venu Ramesh Kumar. IRC 1600: 1. Hrishikesh Thackersey/Ninad Mirajgaonkar, 2. Sirish Chandran/Nikhil Pai, 3. Druva Chandrashekhar/B. Roopesh. FMSCI 1600 Cup: 1. Anirudha Ranganekar/Arjun Mehta, 2. Adith KC/Harish KN, 3. Parag Dhhiwar/Aditya Dhhiwar.
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