Stylish rally star Arjun Balu wins maiden K1000 with navigator Sujith Kumar

By David Bodapati

Bangalore, 23 Aug 2009: Team MRF painted the City Red sweeping the podium as Arjun Balu, the most stylish driver in the Indian rally scene, won his maiden IMG Sports K-1000 rally, the second leg of the SPEED Indian National Rally Championship at the Manyata Tech Park here on Sunday.

“This win means a lot for me. Though it was tough for the last three days, I enjoyed every bit of it,’’ said the champion driver from Coimbatore driving the 200+ horsepower Mitsubishi Lancer Cedia machine.. The 34-year old Speed Master switched off and went on a safe mode but his racing line and the sliding turns showed his class in the Super Special Stage today when he gave a joy ride to the Indian cricket captain, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, the brand ambassador of SPEED, the high-quality product of Bharat Petroleum.

However, it was his teammate Gaurav Gill who stole the limelight with two blistering laps of the 2-km Super Special Stage providing seat-edged thrills and the adrenalin rush to over 5000-odd Sunday crowd. Taking an acute right before the hair-pin bend in front of the Grand Stand, Gaurav Gill, gave spectacular moments of speed and thrill with his sliding dash without letting off the gas and the crowd enjoyed every bit as he clocked a time of 2 min and 7 seconds, the best today. That also helped Gaurav Gill and co-driver Musa Sheriff to bag all the three stage points of Leg 2 pipping Arjun Balu and Sujith Kumar with a tie, which went in favour of Gill and Sheriff as they had fast times in more Special Stages on Day 2.

Arjin Rao Aroor and Satish Rajagopal, also of MRF, completed the top-three in the the 2000cc N+ Category. The splashing at the water spot and the airbourne cars at the jump spot in front of the spectator gallery made the Super Special Stage spectacular for the spectators and the presence of Dhoni added excitement.

Joseph C Jos and Royce Kizhakoodan of Team DDL Kochi who has won many autocross events has entered the rally championship this year and quickly adopted to the circuit. He won the 1600cc class where Sujay S and Varun S finished second and local pair Rahul Kantharaj and Vivek Bhatt came third.

 Local lad Vikram Devadasan, navigated by Nikhil Pai of Secunderabad, who showed his promise in the Rally Star Cup last year with good performances, won the the 1400cc class.  Jose Francis and Manoj M of DDL Sports, Kochi came second while Samarth Gowda and Bharathi SM finished third.

In the Rally Star Cup, the entry class, Phalguna V Urs and Anup Kumar edged out Balram CG and Raghuram CG to the second place. Harikeshav Nambiar and Ashwin Nadig were third.

Sandeep Sharma and Anmol Rampal of Team Thunderbolt brought their Gypsy to the podium while Kushwant Randhawa and co-driver Harminder Singh finished second ahead of local team Sanjay Agarwal and Chetan Shivaram.

Provisional, unaudited results:

Overall/2000cc: Arjun Balu/Sujith Kumar (Team MRF, Cedia N+) 1 ; Gaurav Gill/Moosa Sherif (Team MRF, Cedia N+) 2; Aroor Arjun Rao/Satish Rajagopal (Team MRF, Cedia N+) 3

1600cc (Baleno): Joseph C/Royce 1; S Sujay/Varun 2;  Rahul Kantharaj and Vivek Bhat 3;

1400cc (Esteem): Vikram Devadasen/Nikhil Pai 1; Jose Francis/ Manoj M 2; Samarth Gowda/Bharath SM 3.

Rally Star Cup (Carbureted Esteem): Phalguna Urs/Anoop Kumar 1 ; Raghuram CG/Balram CG 2, Harikeshav Nambiar/Ashwin Nadig

Gypsy class: Sandeep Sharma /Anmol Rajpal 1; Kushwant Randhawa /Harminder 2;

Sanjay Agarwal/ Chetan Shivaram 3.