8th straight win for Naren-Ram; Karandip-Jaidas survive 40-foot drop

Chandigarh, 21 Sept 2003: Defending champion VR Naren Kumar ande co-driver V Ram Kumar of team MRF won all the four rounds this season and well on his way to another title as he won the overall title in the MAI Power M1 Challenge Rally, the fourth round of the MAI Indian National Rally Champioship here on Sunday.

This is the 8th straight win for the pair continuing from the previous season as they finished ahead of teammates Vikram Mathias and co-driver Sujith Kumar with over a minute to spare.

Naren Kumar, the 29-year old from Coimbatore, had an easy time on Sunday after overnight leaders Karandip Singh and co-driver Jaidas Menon, also of Team MRF, suffered a 40-feet roll on Special Stage-10 following a brake failure.

“Since I led Mathias by over two minutes, I eased off totally and did not take any risks. But I was determined to make up the 13 seconds and our approach was to go absolutely flat out and make at least three to four seconds on each of the Stages today. But once Karandip was out of the rally, we decided to take it easy and finish the event,” said Naren, who, in fact, had made three seconds on Karandeep after the first stage on Sunday.

Meanwhile, Mathias, after failing to finish the Chikmagalur and Nashik rounds of the INRC and skipping the Kochi leg, did well to pick up his first points of the season.

“I am happy with our performance in this event and it was a relief to finish after a string of DNFs,” said Mathias talking about the first two rallies he Did Not Finish (DNF).

Karandeep, 29, from Chandigarh, looked certain to clinch the title last night when he established a 13-second lead over Naren.

“We were doing about 100 kmph on a downhill stretch in SS-10 when the brake tube cut leading to loss of fluid. There was nothing I could do and we crashed down a 40-foot drop,” said a disappointed Karandip, who was looking to score a win on home territory. Both the drivers escaped because of the Roll Cage which is mandatory for all rally cars.

Naren and Mathias were the only two from Team MRF to complete the rally as former National champion N Leelakrishnan and co-driver Farooq Ahmed pulled out on Sunday with mechanical problems to join teammates Arjun Balu and co-driver Kumar Ramaswamy in the casualty list.

Veterans Samir Thapar and co-driver Gurinder Singh Mann, both making a comeback after several years, finished third overall in a Maruti Esteem, ahead of championship leaders in the 1400cc category, Lohit Urs and co-driver MK Bopanna.

Provisional final results:

Overall: 1. VR Naren Kumar/V Ram Kumar (Team MRF) (1hr, 43mins, 46secs); 2. Vikram Mathias/Sujith Kumar (Team MRF) (1:44:02); 3. Samir Thapar/ GS Mann (1:46:25;) 4. Lohit v Urs/ MK Bopanna (1:47:31); 5. Jiby Maliakkal/Nikhil Pai (Gulf Oil) (1:51:43); 6. Rajiv Suri/ Rajeev Mehta (1:58:22).

1600cc (Honda City V-Tec): 1. Naren Kumar/ Ram Kumar, 2. Vikram Mathias/B Sujith Kumar, 3. Jiby Maliakkal/Nihil Pai.

1400cc (Maruti Esteem): 1. Samir Thapar/Gurinder Singh Mann, 2. Urs/Bopanna.

Rally Star Cup: 1. S Ram Prashanth/ Thiru Murthy (1:51:18); 2. Ranjith Ballal/ Shanmuga (1:51:41); 3. Yogeshwar Gill/Harkanwal Cheema (2:05:23).