Gill on a roll in Coimbatore

The windy and wet opening day saw Gill’s Mahindra Adventure teammate Amittrajit Ghosh and Ashwin Naik retire midway owing to mechanical problems, while PG Abilash and KR Kumar of R3A PGA Motorsport in a Mitsubishi Evo6 – who thrillingly upstaged reigning Asia Pacific Rally champion Gill in the opening Special Stage of 26.1 km – dropped out during the transport section after being second overall after four Special Stages.

Eight other cars in a field of 36 also retired during Leg 1.

At the conclusion of four Special Stages and a wet Super Special Stage (SSS), Arjun Rao and Sathish Rajagopal in a VW Polo were second in the IRC overall, while leading in the IRC 1600cc category, and Mahindra Adventure’s Sunny Sidhu and PV Srinivas Murthy were third in the IRC.

Team Yokohama’s Rahul Kantharaj and Vivek Bhatt in a Mitsubishi Cedia were fourth overall and on top of the ladder in the IRC 2000cc category while their Team Yokohama mates Vikram Devadesen and Shrikanth in a VW Polo were fifth overall and second in the IRC 1600 class.

A run over the two Special Stages of 26.10 kms and 12.65 kms comprise Leg 2 on Sunday.

Gill, winner of the opening round of the Indian Rally Championship in Nashik, was quickest in three of the day’s five stages.

“I realised I had to do something different after Abhilash turned out to be the fastest in the first stage,” said New Delhi’s Gill. “We made adjustments to the suspension among other things and I was all the more aggressive.” Gill, however, appeared cautious in the SSS.

Kochi’s Abhilash was returning to competitive rallying after a gap of five years and, although he came second behind Gill in Super Stages 2, 3 and 4, he was always a threat until he dropped out owing to mechanical problem.

Arjun Rao turned in a spectacular show after the 2013 INRC 1600 winner returned to action after missing the Nashik round. “I decided to be attacking from the start. It has paid off so far,” said the Mangalorean.

Indian Rally Championship (IRC): 1. Gaurav Gill/Musa Sherif (Mahindra Adventure) (01:06.53.7), 2. Arjun Rao/Satish Rajagopal (01:08.23.4), 3. Sunny Sidhu/PV Srinivas Murthy (Mahindra Adventure) (01:09.23.1), 4. Rahul Kantharaj/Vivek Bhatt (Team Yokohama) (01:10.12.2), 5. Vikram Devadasen/Shrikanth (Team Yokohama) (01:10.18.8).

IRC 2000cc: 1. Rahul Kantharaj/Vivek Bhatt (Team Yokohama), 2. Byram Godrej/AG Somayya, 3. Prithivi Dominic/MS Ravindra.

IRC 1600cc: 1. Arjun Rao/Satish Rajagopal, 2. Vikram Devadasen/Shrikanth (Team Yokohama), 3. Phalguna Urs/Anoop Kumar.

FMSCI 1600 cc Cup: 1. B Raghu Nandan/K Suraj, 2. KC Adith/KN Harish, 3. Aniruddha Rangnekar/Nitin Jacob.