Harkrishan, Kunal duo leads Day 1 again at the iconic K1000 Rally: INRC

David Bodapati December 22, 2023

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Harkrishan Wadia takes the lead after Day 1 at the K1000 Rally in Tumakuru on Friday. INDIAinF1 image

Tumakuru, 22 Dec. 2023: Delhi daredevil and Arjuna Awardee Gaurav Gill, began with a bang and clocked the fastest stage times in the first two special stages but it was his compatriot young gun Harkrishan Wadia, also from Delhi, who stole the limelight beating the best in the next two stages to emerge as the Overall leader at the end of Day 1 in the iconic Blueband K1000 Rally, the sixth and final round of the Blueband Sports fmsci Indian National Rally Championship (INRC) for four-wheelers, near Gubbi, on Friday. In the previous Kodagu Rally also, the duo took the lead on Day 1 and went on to win the Overall title the next day.

The popular Blueband K1000 Rally, organised by Karnataka Motor Sports Club (KMSC), is the oldest running rally in India and threw more surprises as Wadia, along with Kunal Kashyap of Himachal Pradesh, fresh from their maiden Overall victory at the Kodagu Rally, dominated the proceedings with a late charge and the multiple-champion Gill, who won K1000 many times is trailing in the fifth position, about 84 seconds behind the leaders. Championship leaders Aroor Arjun Rao and Satish Rajagopal, continued to suffer hiccups, but the duo have already clinched their maiden INRC title, with a round to spare.

Arka Motorsports’ Harkrishan Wadia (co-driver Kashyap), driving an INRC2 spec Volkswagen Polo 1.6 did a commendable job to finish the Leg 1 on top on Day 1 but they need to sustain the tempo for a flourish on the last day of the season tomorrow. The duo also topped their INRC2 class. Younus Ilyas and co-driver Nitin Jacob emerged Day 1 in second followed by Mangaluru’s speed merchant Dean Mascarenhas and Gagan Karumbaiah in third.

In INRC2, former champions Philippos Matthai and co-driver PVS Murthy are following Wadia in second and 2019 champion Chetan Shivram is in third along with his navigator E Shivaprakash.

Shivani Parmar (co-ddriver Arjun Dheerendra) leads the Ladies Class after Day 1 at the K1000 Rally near Gubbi on Friday. Due to Christmas, the K1000 Rally finishes on Saturday, instead of the traditional Sunday.

In the INRC3 class, Jason Saldanha and co-driver Thimmanna Uddapanda, who did well in this year’s Malaysian Rally Championship, emerged as leaders with a late kick pushing behind Shashank Jamwal and Aseem Sharma to second. Talented Jahaan Singh Gill of Chandigarh along with Bengaluru co-driver Suraj Keshav Prasad of Snap Racing, who already clinched the Junior INRC title for 2023, is in third place. They are table leaders before going into K1000.

“I have a comfortable margin of over 40 seconds, but I am not going to relax. We will carry the tempo and go for it on the final day of the season. It felt good in the last two stages and I want to keep up the momentum,” said the day’s leader, Harkishan Wadia, who came into prominence in the Asia Pacific Rally Star event at Chennai last year.

Abhin Rai is leading INRC4 class along with co-driver Rohit Gowda, and the Ammyfied Rallying team is looking for a strong finish tomorrow. In the Gypsy Class, another Ammyfied team of Samrat Yadav and Arvind Dheerendra are in P1 looking to sustain the good run on Saturday.

Provisional Results after Day 1:

Overall: 1. Harkrishan Wadia/ Kunal Kashyap (Arka Motorsports) (00hrs, 58min, 26.2seconds); 2. Younus Ilyas/ Nitin Jacob (Pvt.) (00:59:11.7); 3. Dean Mascarenhas/ Gagan Karumbaiah (Pvt.) (00:59:14:4);

INRC2: 1. Harkrishan Wadia/ Kunal Kashyap (Arka Motorsports) (00:58:26.2); 2. Philippos Matthai/ PV Srinivasa Murthy (Arka Motorsports) (00:59:27.2): 3. Chetan Shivram/ E Shivaprakash (Jo1 Rallying) (01:00:44.0);

INRC3: 1. Jason Saldanha/ Thimmanna Uddapanda (Dark Don Racing) (01:00:09.7); 2. Jahaan Singh Gill/ Suraj Keshav Prasad (Snap Racing) (01:00:31.1); 3. Daraius Shroff/ Shahid Salman (Chettinad Sporting) (01:00:38.0).

INRC4: 1. Abhin Rai/ Rohit Gowda (Ammyfied Rallying) (01:03:27.9); 2. Athul Thomas /Sajil V Saji (Pvt.) (01:10:39.5); 3. Praveen Dwarakanath / Kariyappa KB (Pvt.) (01:12:48.3):

Gypsy: 1. Samrat Yadav/ Arvind Dheerendra (Ammyfied Rallying) (01:04;58.5); 2. Darshan Nachappa/ Abhinav Ganapathy (Ammyfied) (01:09:11.6); 3. Dr Akarsh Sunder/ V Seker (Ammyfied Rallying) (01:09:24.8);

Ladies Class: 1. Shivani Parmar/ Arjun Dheerendra (Chettinadu Sporting) (01:03:43.0); 2. Nikeetaa Takkale/ Raghuram Saminathan (Snap Racing) (01:03:55.8); 3. Anushriya Gulati/ Sherwin Dalmeida (Dark Don Racing) (01:04:25.0).

Junior INRC: 1. Jahaan Singh Gill/ Suraj Keshav Prasad (Snap Racing) (01:00:31.1); 2. Abhin Rai/ Rohit Gowda (Ammyfied Rallying) (01:03:27.9); 3. Arjun Rajiv/ Milen George (Ammyfied) (01:03:41.5).

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