Gaurav Gill, Musa Sherif conquer Nashik Rally

Nashik, 28 August 2016: Team Mahindra Adventure’s Gaurav Gill and long-time co-driver Musa Sherif won the Rally of Maharashtra for the sixth time, winning the Round 2 of the Indian National Rally Championship (INRC) which concluded at Nashik on Sunday. Gaurav and Musa clocked 52min 8sec for the win.

Gill was fastest in four of the six stages and took a commanding lead of 1min 4sec over Arjun Rao Aroor and co-driver Satish Rajgopal. Kolkata driver Amittrajit Ghosh along with navigator Ashwin Naik, who were the winners of the first round at Coimbatore, could only finish third here timing 53min 59sec, almost two minutes adrift of the toppers. Ghosh’s said, he had punctures in SS 1,3 and 4.

In the Indian Rally Championship class (IRC), Abhilash PG and co-driver Srikanth Gowda took the overall win clocking 55min 20sec. Suraj Kute and navigator Shamim Khan came second in 1min 7sec while Amol Satoskar and co-driver Dinesh S were third clocking 1min 13sec.

Dr Bikku Babu won the INRC 2000 class, with Milen George calling the pace notes as the Kerala duo clocked 54min 33sec. Bangalore pair, Karna Kadur (co-driver Nikhil Pai) finished just a second behind to take the second place.

Switching to a new format under RRPM promoters, the Rally of Maharashtra this year was held in a one-day format with three Special Stages run in two loops. The Special Stage distance was only 70km and along with liaision the entire rally covered almost 400km. SS1 which doubled up as SS4 in the second run, is the new physical stage this year. It took the competitors through a narrow tarmac road with hardly any run-off area and it tested the drivers concentration. According to Musa, it was a very technical stage that helped bring in all the aspects of a rally stage. The consistent drizzle made the roads quite slippery making it more challenging for the drivers.

The next round of the INRC will be held in Gurgaon on September 17 and 18.

Provisional Unaudited Classification:

Overall and INRC: 1. Gaurav Gill/ Musa Sherif (52min, 08sec); 2. Arujun Rao Aroor/ Satish Rajagopal (53:12); 3. Amittrajit Ghosh/ Ashwin Naik (53:59).

IRC: 1. PG Abhilash/ Srikanth Gowda (55:20); 2. Suraj Kute/ Shamim Khan (1:00:07); 3. Amol Satoskar/ Dinesh S (1:00:13); 4. Mohammed Kasim/ G Sanath (1:00:25).

INRC 2000: 1. Dr Bikku Babu/ Milen George (54:33); 2. Karna Kadur/ Nikhil Pai (54:34); 3. Younas Ilyas/ Suraj Prasad (54:55).

FMSCI Cup:  1. KJ Jacob/ Manoj Mohanan (57:21); 2. Yashas Nayaka M/ Uday Kumar D (59:06); 3. Michu Ganapathi/ Venu Ramesh Kumar (1:00:37).