Gill terms new Coimbatore stages at twisty and tricky
Coimbatore, 25 Feb 2022: Seven-time National champion Gaurav Gill feels that the new dirt terrain is challenging as it is very twisty and tricky despite some parts of flowing corners and fast stretches as he looks forward to the Rally of Coimbatore, the first round of the 3-round fmsci Indian National Rally Championship (INRC) 2021 which was flagged off here on Friday.
Organised by the Coimbatore Auto Sports Club (CASC) with MRF as the associate sponsors, the 120-km stage rally has attracted 57 entries in the four National championship classes for INRC Overall championship, INRC2, INRC3 and INRC4 spec cars.
Gaurav Gill and Musa Sherif will start as strong favourites as they look for the record-breaking eighth INRC National title with young guns Karna Kadur and co-driver Nikhil Pai looking to upset the applecart of three-time APRC champion. The others in the 7-team INRC line-up are teammates Amittrajit Ghosh and Ashwin Naik also in a Mahindra SUV while experienced campaigners Arjun Rao and navigator Sathish Rajagopal (Baleno) along with Younus Iiyas and Aniruddha Ranganekar in a Cedia and newcomers, Arnav Pratap Singh and Suraj Keshav Prasad in a VW Polo 1.6.
The INRC2 class spearheaded by 2020 champion Sahil Khanna, who have seven cars including Fabid Ahmer, who moved up after winning the INRC3 title last year. INRC3 has attracted a huge number of 23 cars and INRC4 category has 9 cars. The Gypsy Cup (11) and Junior INRC will be support classes. There will three all-ladies cars among the nine lady entries, as they will be competing on equal terms.
Earlier, CASC President and Clerk of the Course (CoC) welcomed everyone to the new INRC season and said the club had found new stages which are smooth and fast. “The earlier windmill stages at Kethanoor had their own charm but are very harsh and hard on the drivers and cars. The new dirt stages are smooth but challenging and we hope the drivers will like them,” he said about the two 15-km physical stages, Black Thunder and SM Agro, which will be run twice in the forward direction on Saturday and twice each again, in the reverse direction on Sunday.
In the pre-event Press Conference, Gaurav Gill said: “It was a long break for all of us and it is good to be here as rallying is what we love to do. The terrain is not the typical Coimbatore stages. The dirt stages are slippery and it is difficult to generate traction in some parts of the stages. So it is important to keep the right momentum as it will be no walk in the park.” Preparing the pace notes after the recce on Friday morning, his co-driver Musa Sherif, who is doing his 294th rally, agreed and said: “I had to do 95 pages of notes for the 60km.”
