Samir Thapar, Vikram Mathias thrill the crowds in super-special stage

David Bodapati December 12, 2014

436 1 minute read

Chikkamagaluru, 12 Dec 2014: The three Mitsubishi Evolution variants swept the time sheets with JCT Rallying’s Samir Thapar (co-driver Gurinder Singh Mann) winning the Super Special Stage as the Coffee Day Rally, the sixth and concluding round of the FMSCI Indian Rally Championship commenced here on Friday.

While the huge crowd at the Amber Valley School grounds were disappointed when National champion Gaurav Gill (Musa Sherif) of Mahindra Adventure retired barely 200 metres after the start with a broken drive shaft, Thapar, driving the Evo X, along with Vikram Mathias (Swaroop Mohan) and PG Abhilash (Anoop Kumar) provided much of the entertainment.

Thapar topped the charts with a blistering two minutes, 27.3 seconds, to finish ahead of former National champion Mathias (02:27.8), in the Evo IX and Abhilash (02:32.2) piloting the Evo VI, in the IRC class. The trio put on a memorable display in their powerful cars much to the delight of nearly 3,000 spectators.

Topping the IRC 2000 class was young Karna Kadur (Sujith Kumar BS) in the Mitsubishi Cedia, with a time of 02:38.5, well clear of Team Yokohama’s Rahul Kanthraj (Vivek Bhatt), also in a Cedia, and Byram Godrej (Somaya AG) of Slideways Industries, driving the Volkswagen Polo.

Dean Mascarenhas (Shanmugha SN), the 20-year old from Mangaluru, put in a solid performance in the VW Polo to dominate the IRC 1600 class, clocking 02:41.4.

Equally impressive was Adith KC (Harish KN), the freshly crowned National champion in the FMSCI 1600 who clocked 02:37.7 to top his category.

The action will escalate when the 34 competitors head to the nearby coffee estates for the three Special Stages which will be run twice on Saturday and once on Sunday, the concluding day of the Coffee Day Rally.

Provisional classification (Leg 1, Section 1):

IRC Overall: Samir Thapar / Gurinder Singh Mann (JCT Rallying, Evo X) 1 (02mins, 27.3secs); Vikram Mathias / Swaroop Mohan (Evo IX) 2 (02:27.8); Abhilash PG / Anoop Kumar (Evo VI) 3 (02:32.2).

IRC 2000: Karna Kadur / Sujith Kumar BS (Mitsubishi Cedia) 1 (02:38.5); Rahul Kanthraj / Vivek Bhatt (Team Yokohama, Cedia) 2 (02:40.2); Byram Godrej / Somaya AG (Slideways Industries, VW Polo) 3 (02:42.0).

IRC 1600: Dean Mascarenhas / Shanmugha SN (VW Polo) 1 (02:41.4); Ritesh M Guttedar / Lokaranjan (VW Polo) 2 (02:43.1); Anirudha Ranganekar / Ninad Mirajgaonkar 3 (02:46.3).

FMSCI 1600: Adith KC / Harish KN (Honda City V-Tec) 1 (02:37.7); Raghu Nandan B / Suraj K (Honda City V-Tec) 2 (02:41.7); Shahid Khan / Dhananjayan B (Maruti Esteem) 3 (02:43.4).

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