Naren Kumar, Ram Kumar duo put Red Rooster on top in home town

By David Bodapati

Coimbatore, 8 August 2010: Veteran war-horse and local pride Naren Kumar of Red Rooster Racing clinched the Speed Rally of Coimbatore, the second round of the Speed Indian National Rally Championship after he thrilled the spectators at the Super Special Stage with controlled aggression at the Ganga Naidu Charities Trust ground here on Sunday.

With Ram Kumar navigating in the Mitsubishi Lancer Cedia, the Coimbatore duo turned the tide for Red Rooster Racing with a facile win. Teammates Vikram Mathias and co-driver PV Srinivas Murthy finishing second, ahead of Team MRF’s Arjun Balu (Sujith Kumar BS). However, it was Team MRF’s Lohit Urs (Srikanth Gowda) who stole the limelight in the two-lap 1.3km Super Special Stage (SSS), the last special stage with a timing of 1 min 53 secs while defending national champion Gaurav Gill stalled his Cedia in the second lap but not before the few hundreds had a taste of his stunning drifts on the first lap. Gill crashed out in the first leg on Saturay but came back today gunning for the leg points in vain.

Team Ovion Racing’s Sujay Suresh and co-driver Bharath SM in a Mitsubishi Lancer Cedia won the 2000cc N category while the other Ovion team Girija Shankar Joshy  and co-drier Chandramouli suffered bad luck with a flat tyre twice in the day. Vikram Devadasan (Shivaprakash) finished second ahead of Chethan Shivaram and Roopesh Kholay, who took advantage of mechanical problems faced by Sirish Chandran (Nikhil V Pai) of Overdrive.

In 1600cc N category, Shailendar Hegde (Sheraz Ahmed) brought home their Maruthi Baleno for a victory over the Kerala pair of Vishal GA and Robinson R George. The other team from Kochi, Ranjith Gopinath and Dileep R came third.

Dr Bikku Babu and co-driver Bonnie Thomas won the 1400cc class while Phalguna Urs (Anoop Kumar) took home the Rally Star Cup. The Army Adventure Club duo of Maj Amrinder Brar and Himanshu Pareek pushed back Shakti Bajaj (Dharmesh Singh) to the second place and won the Gypsy class comfortably.

Provisional un-audited Classification:

Overall: 1. Naren Kumar / Co-driver Ram Kumar, Red Rooster Racing, 1:35:58.3; 2. Vikram Mathias / PV Srinivasa Murthy, Red Rooster Racing, 1:36:32.7; 3. Arjun Balu/ Sujit Kumar BS, Team MRF, 1:39:27.4;

Group 2000cc N+: 1. Naren Kumar / Co-driver Ram Kumar, Red Rooster Racing, 1:35:58.3; 2. Vikram Mathias / PV Srinivasa Murthy, Red Rooster Racing, 1:36:32.7; 3. Arjun Balu/ Sujit Kumar BS, Team MRF, 1:39:27.4;

Group 2000cc N: 1. Sujay Suresh / Bharath SM, Ovion Racing, 1: 46: 53.9 ; 2. Vikram Devadasen/ Shivaprakash E, privateers (pvt), 1:51: 21.5; 3. Chethan Shivaram/ Roopesh Kholay, 1: 54: 47.2;

Group 1600cc N: 1. Shailendar Hegde/ Sheraz Ahmed, pvt, 1: 52:32.7;

2. Vishal GA/ Robinson R George, pvt, 1: 52: 55.9; 3. Ranjith Gopinath/ Dileep R, pvt, 1: 54: 55.7;

Group 1400cc N: 1. Dr Bikku Babu/ Bonnie Thomas, pvt-Kerala, 1: 49:59.0; 2. Byram Godrej/ Anjay Kapadia, pvt, 1: 50: 18.6; 3. Monish L /Jeevarathinam J, 1:58:43.9;

Group Rally Star Cup (RSC): 1. Phalguna Urs/ Anoop Kumar, pvt, 1: 52:25.1; 2. Harikesav N/Ashvin Nadig, pvt, 1: 53:38.3; 3. Venkatapathy MR/ Santtosh Kumar S, 1: 55:16.9; 

Group Gypsy: 1. Maj Amarinder S Brar/ Himanshu Pareek, pvt – Army Adventure Wing
1: 53:34.6; 2. Shakti Bajaj/ Dharmesh Singh, pvt- Army AW, 1: 56: 22.2; 3. Harpreet Singh Sidhu/ Sanjay B Gokhale, 1: 56: 54.5.